Participants hone their skills at a three-day camp held at Dhauli Art College. Telegraph picture
Bhubaneswar, Feb. 16: Artists of different age groups from across the country explored their creative skills at the Dhauli Art Festival that concluded here on Sunday.
Organised by the Dhauli College of Arts and Crafts in collaboration with Lalit Kala Akademi, the festival comprised an artists' camp and a national-level painting contest.
Around 12 artists from various parts of the state took part in the camp. Using various mediums such as watercolour, sketch pens, acrylics and crayons, the artists put their imagination on canvas.
Most of the paintings were related to the Dhauli Peace Pagoda and the lifestyle of the people residing in the area. On the last day, all the paintings were exhibited at a special gallery in the art college and the artists were also felicitated with Rs 12,000 each.
'The festival aimed at providing a platform to the artists to exhibit their skills. At the camp, the painters interacted with each other and discussed the new paradigms and evolving trends of art and crafts,' said Panchanan Samal, the principal of the college.
Around 700 artists had registered for the competition that was categorised into three groups. While Group A had children of four to seven years, Group B had participants aging between eight and 12 years, and Group C between 13 and 18 years.
Students from Assam, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra and New Delhi took part in the contest.
While a few drew beautiful landscapes of the local flora and fauna, others focused on social issues such as environmental degradation, terrorism, religion, and corruption.
Senior artists such as Siba Panigrahi, D.N. Rao and Tarakanta Parida attended the festival. Final-year students of the college exhibited their works through sculptures, graphic arts, ceramic crafts, and paintings.
For the participants, the festival was a boost to their aesthetic interests. 'We got to meet many artists and learnt techniques of using brushes and various types of brushstrokes. We were in a competitive mood but also had a lot of fun,' said Anupama Ghoshal, a participant from Bengal.
