Bhubaneswar, May 5: Tiny hands are busy crafting beautiful works of art at the Odisha Modern Art Gallery, where the 11th edition of their annual art workshop is under way.

Fine Heart, the art camp designed for kids, began on Sunday and the little participants are busy sharpening their creative skills.

The fortnight-long workshop is being held to bring out the artistic skills in the 20 children taking part in the camp. They are being groomed in a variety of artworks.

Professional resource persons are teaching the aspiring artists to operate a pottery wheel or mould M-seal (which is extensively used for sealing and fixing work) and carve out showpieces and decorative objects. Tie and dye articles, tribal art, patta painting, terracotta, pottery, sand art, making useful crafts such as pen stand and wall-hangings out of waste and discarded materials and making flowers or photo frames out of M-seal are some of the crafts that are being taught at the workshop, apart from painting and drawing.

"I find pottery amazing. Creating such useful objects out of clay is fun and I think I will take up pottery after completing the workshop," said Ritu, a 13-year-old participant at the workshop.

The children are spending a couple of hours everyday at the workshop. A separate resource person has been allotted for each art form.

"They may look tiny but they have more powerful visual imagination and concepts in their minds that are free from worldly tensions. Refining their creative skills would improve their overall personality too," said Mousumi Mitra, one of the six trainers. The other trainers at the workshop are Bandita De, Madhusmita Barik, Manas Das, Shatrughan Meher and Ramesh Muduli.

The workshop is open for children from the age group of five to 13-years. It is conducted every year during the summer vacations to help kids hone their creative skills.

"Art is an essential part of a child's development and yet it is usually thought to be just a hobby with no real significance. But the young artists have brilliant ideas and great passion. Children must be given more exposure to art rather than being forced to join numerous tuitions for better academic performance," said Tarakant Parida, a well-known artist and the organiser of the workshop.