Paintings on display at the art exhibition at Jayadev Bhawan in Bhubaneswar. Pictures by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, March 8: A painting exhibition titled Together began at Jayadev Bhavan in capital on Monday evening.

Eight young artist of the state are participating in this three-day exhibition, which is an endeavour of Manash Jena, an artist and faculty member at B.K. College of Art and Crafts.

The artists with their sharp lines and vibrant colours have tried to narrate a story on every canvas. The artists here are Sanjeeb Nanda, Debabrata Mishra, Sujeet Sahoo, Chinmaya Panda, Prasant Barik, Samar Ghosh, Subrat Seth and Santosh Routray.

While most of them had used acrylic on canvas, others made use of watercolours as well as mixed media. The concern for environment and society was the common characteristic of every painting put up for display.

Artist Sanjeeb Nanda, whose work mostly revolves around youth and freedom, had projected the inner desires of children and youngsters.

He represented the various shades of one’s character by using unconventional colours to illuminate parts of a person’s face and side profile.

Subrat Seth has mostly concentrated on landscape and wildlife by the “grid method” where the image has been divided into smaller squares, and sketched one-at-a-time to portray his perspective.

Debabrata Mishra has delved into abstract or modern art and incorporated graffiti elements. He has made generous use of bright colours and provided a thick texture to all his paintings.

While Samar Ghosh lent an ethnic touch to his paintings on nature, Prasant Barik has presented a series capturing the various moods of Lord Buddha with the use of earthy and warm colours.

Santosh Routray has concentrated more on representing the images of Hindu gods and goddesses with traditional, intricate designs and a contemporary stroke to the background.

Sujeet Sahoo has given more attention to illustrate rapid urbanisation. In one of his paintings, Sahoo reproduced this thought by showing a creeper around iron rods, which are used for constructing buildings.

Although studying to be an engineer, participant Chinmaya Panda who shares a great passion for art is also here with his assorted sketches. He has used bright, fiery colours to symbolise global warming and destruction of the planet. His other paintings focus on village life, children and environment.

Organiser and curator, Manash Jena said eight paintings at the exhibition have already been sold. “I am happy to note that consciousness for art is gradually growing in the city. With such encouragement, these young artists can conduct an exhibition of their own,” said Jena.

This painting exhibition is a prelude to a national level painting show to be organised in mid November this year at Bharat Bhavan, Bhopal.