Children paint at an art workshop in Bhubaneswar. Telegraph picture

Bhubaneswar, April 7: Ten-year old Kritika was busy drawing what seemed like a profile of her doll. Her friend, meanwhile, was decorating a huge butterfly she had created on paper, with a tinge of each of the twelve colours in her colour box.

The young artists had gathered at the Orissa Modern Art Gallery (OMAG) recently, to be a part of an art workshop held to pay tribute to eminent artist Kashinath Jena, who passed away last Saturday. The 30 children who attended the workshop, created a wide range of paintings, sketches and drawings.

“Kasinath Jena was one of the finest painters Orissa has produced in contemporary times. His composition always had a distinct angle of subjects,” said painter Tarakant Parida, proprietor of OMAG. Jena was 68 and suffered from a chronic disease to which he succumbed at a hospital in Cuttack.

The works of the artist, who was born in 1943, are a part of the collections of galleries like Mumbai’s Jehangir Art Gallery and Nehru Centre and Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi.

“He was very fond of children and had worked a lot on child art. As a tribute, we organised the event to encourage art among children,” said Parida.

“The legacy of immortal creations he has left behind will always inspire us and the coming generation,” he added.

While the child artists began with a silent prayer for the eminent artist, they were briefed about the life of Jena. “We were shown his works in photographs on the computer. He had made beautiful paintings,” said Priyabardhan Mishra, a 12-year-old participant.

“They told us he was famous. I too wish to grow up and become a famous painter,” said Kritika.

The kids worked with crayons, sketch pens, poster colours and water colours. The themes they worked on varied from animal life, landscape and scenery, profiles and more.