(Clockwise from left) An artwork by Pratichee Das depicts village women, Ritika P Singh focuses on Lord Jagannath, while another child artist captures a village scene at the exhibition at Odisha Modern Art Gallery. Pictures by Sanjib Mukherjee

Bhubaneswar, Sept. 2: Lord Jagannath and his siblings may have been captured with precision in thousands of paintings, but 10-year-old Ritika P. Singh’s artwork still managed to stand apart because of her originality.

Through her eyes, the Lord and his siblings are colourful hills with eyes.

It wasn’t just she who had viewers at ongoing art exhibition Art Heart going “ooh!” and “aah!” Hundreds of artworks by children have been displayed at Odisha Modern Art Gallery that express the little artists’ innocence and artistic zeal.

The 70 art students who are trained at the gallery have displayed their works at the exhibition that was inaugurated on Saturday by movie star Akash Dasnayak.

The little artists have depicted plenty of themes, most of which are on nature. There are also several paintings on Odia festivals, family, school, friends, travel and so on. The little artists, who are aged between four and 14, have shown great maturity in all aspects of art. From choosing the subject to etching it on paper with impressive shading techniques and colour schemes, various elements of the works are noteworthy.

A study of mountains in crayon and ink by Abhishek Sinha is absorbing, while the scene of village women carrying wood collected from the jungle, painted by Pratichee Das, is striking. Like her other child artist friends, Pratichee has emphasised on details in the background.

“Children are free willed and we must let them be. There’s no need to correct them when they are drawing an unusual shape of Lord Jagannath or the sun or a fruit. It is how they perceive things and they must be given freedom to express themselves. Like Pratichee, Ritika has chosen colours such as blue for Jagannath, pink for Subhadra and yellow for Balabhadra’s face. It is not the norm but it shows her originality,” said founder of the gallery and well-known artist Tarakant Parida.

The exhibition will conclude on September 4.