Painting on display at Dhauli Art Festival and visitors at the exhibition in Bhubaneswar. Pictures by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, July 23: A collection of images reflecting the artists’ perceptions regarding life and society were exhibited at the two-day Dhauli Art Festival that concluded today.

Painters from all over the state gathered to showcase their creations at the event. Of the 32 paintings exhibited at the art show, 12 were selected for awards at the event. Created by young artists, these chosen paintings were striking for their concept and technique of presentation.

Ranjan Kumar Sahoo’s work that spoke about the dependence on technology and electricity was intriguing. The painting showed two crows sitting on a high-tension electricity wire while the faces of a man and a woman are hanging from the wire. The colour treatment of the artwork with a red backdrop was quite interesting.

A painting by Prakash Chandra Seth from Khallikote depicting the evils of smoking was stimulating. It showed seven pillars of cigarettes that are slowly burning and the smoke represented faces of the smokers, who are also perishing with the cigarette.

Laxmidhar Behera from Bhadrak captured the smiles of two tribal girls in his painting. Similarly, Hemanta Bishi’s portrait of an old woman with wrinkles that appear owing to the smile on her face also received appreciation from viewers. “The painter has wonderfully captured the experiences and journey of life in the smiling eyes of the old woman. There are a number of other works based on animal life and even the society that are interesting,” said Anuja Saraugi, a viewer. The exhibition included a large variety of paintings such as acrylic on canvas, watercolour on paper as well as ink and crayons. The works of Akshay Kumar Bhoi, Snehalata Barik, Anushya Ojha, Prasanna Kumar Sutar, Sashi Kanta Ray, Bikas Ranjan Pradhan and Sujit Kumar Seth were absorbing. “We chose the paintings to be exhibited out of over 50 entries. Well-known artists such as Sudhanshu Sutar and Chintamani Biswal did the selection on June 10. The exhibition plus competition aims to promote young talents in the field of art,” said artist Panchanan Samal, the organiser.