Some came looking for their first piece of art. Some for inspiration. Some to add to their collection. Some to dress up their new home.... They were there by the hundreds on the first two days of the three-day annual art fiesta at CIMA

Anastasia Sinha Roy (right), a Russian who lives in Calcutta and is “pretty accustomed to the events happening here”, was at CIMA on Saturday with friend Dina, in Calcutta on work, to give her a “glimpse into the spiritual and art atmosphere” of the city. “I’m not a connoisseur but I’m here to find a piece of beautiful art that might strike my imagination, make my soul click and make our lives beautiful every day,” said Anastasia. Dina was looking for “something that would reflect Indian culture that I can take away”. She finally picked up a patachitra by Swarnachitrakar and a Madhubani painting. “One is for myself and the other a gift for my husband’s family.”

Sinjini Mukherjee (left) and her colleagues dropped in after work on Saturday. The sister of fashion designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee works with her brother at his Topsia workshop. She picked up works by Lalu Prosad Shaw, Atanu Mukherjee and a terracotta structure by Shyamal Roy for her home. “I am very happy today!” she smiled. “The Art Mela is a huge opportunity for us. Everything is so beautiful here and if beautiful things are affordable, nothing could be better!”

Shukla Mukherjee of Dover Terrace loves spending time at the Art Mela. For the last five years, she has been a regular, sometimes buying, sometimes browsing. “It’s just love for art and handicrafts that brings me here. It’s a passion now. I love it,” smiled Shukla as she spent over two hours on her second round of the Art Mela on Day Two and went home with a Sunirmal Maity and a Shyamal Roy terracotta sculpture of a dog. “It’s for myself, for my home which I want to beautify. Whenever I get a good bargain, I pick up some artwork because price is always a factor.”

Kaushik Saha (left) came art shopping on Saturday with sister Moumita and friend Imran Jadwet to fill up the walls of his new home at Ballygunge. The interior designer spent almost an hour looking around for that perfect find. “I came looking for something interesting and I liked Gautam Pramanick’s paintings. So I picked up two,” smiled Kaushik, who also took home two of Satyajit Roy’s works. Kaushik was helped in his choice by Imran, who runs a diving school and resort in the Andamans. “It is going to be on your wall and people are going to be admiring it, so you need to spend time deciding what would be the right one for you. An exhibition like this is important to give new artists a chance and also for us to get into the art scene. This is a way for us to start collecting. It’s a symbiotic relationship between the artist and the consumer,” Imran said. The trio went home happy with “the great experience of finding variety and, most importantly, original and accessible art”.

Jahan Parekh, a third-year student of BCom at St. Xavier’s College, and his parents were there to “look” at colourful art after reading about the Art Mela in t2. The young man on his “first trip out to buy art” was impressed by the watercolours. “I specially liked one with an auto and also the ones with scenery.”

Marlene Apmanm (left) and Anja Bohmhof, photographers from Germany on a project in the city, landed up on Friday following the signage on the road. “We are artists and interested in art so we thought this would be a good way to get an impression of Calcutta’s contemporary art,” they chorused.

“I love this sort of art — simple, primitive,” said Mac Houston, an artist from Melbourne on holiday in Calcutta, as he browsed Swarnachitrakar’s patachitra. “I read about the Art Mela in The Telegraph and thought I’d come and take a piece of Calcutta home. I’m very happy to be here. The prices are so reasonable. We don’t have something like this back in Australia.”

Aanchal Tandon arrived with daughters Meher, 8, and Suhani, 6, straight from their sports day at La Martiniere for Girls. “I’ve been coming to Art Mela for the last four years, sharp at 11 every time on Day I. Today I’m late but I managed to pick up a Suhas Roy painting,” she smiled. “Most of the paintings in my house are from Art Mela. It’s so well-priced. I come and pick up two or three paintings and then I’m sorted for the year. Now that my house has been renovated, I need a lot of paintings,” she said.

Shiyamek Dasgupta, a student of Class XI of Birla High School, came to see the range of works on display. “I loved Rabin Mondal’s works because his paintings are very expressive despite using very little colour. I also liked Asim Pal’s sense of proportion, colours and etchings,” said the self-taught budding artist on Friday.

Text: Mohua Das and Ratnalekha Mazumdar
Pictures: Rashbehari Das and Pabitra Das

Today is the last day of CIMA Art Mela, 11am to 8pm, at CIMA Gallery, Sunny Towers, 43 Ashutosh Chowdhury Avenue