Over 1,000 paintings enthuse Belagavites

Belagavi: The beauty of nature, wildlife, human emotions, rural life and urban lifestyle, captured on canvas with multiple colours, left the people of Belagavi spoilt for choice at Chitra Jatre, the first-ever mega exhibition of paintings featuring hundreds of artists, organized on Cantonment Board office premises.
On Sunday, the event received a tremendous response. Apart from professionals, over 100 students of JN Bhandari School of Art (Shinoli, Maharashtra), Vijay Kalamandir School (Gadag), Government Fine Arts College (Dharwad) and an institution from Goa exhibited their works. The 1,500-plus exhibits included works with media/genre like abstract, collage, acrylic, oil, water, ballpen drawings, 2D designs and the like.

The works which caught people's attention included paintings by Prasad Sapre (smiling shepherd), Mahaveer Balikai, and Mahantesh Belli, abstract composition by Bhakti Paramoji, pen-and-ink drawing by J C Kittur (women's feelings), oil paintings (rural women) by Pune-based hearing impaired artist Chetan Kumar, paintings of Basavanna, Mahatma Gandhi, Shivaji Maharaj by Sangamesh Bagali (with blood as the medium), and Rama-Seetha's selfie-clicking scene by Naveen Hubballi.

Many art lovers stood in queue before the stall of Sanjay Kumar who drew their sketches in just 10 minutes for Rs 100.

Subhash Desai, artist and principal of an art school, said: "The fair created a platform for artists in and around Belagavi to showcase their talent. Many people did appreciate the works. However, only a few of them bought them. Such art fairs must be held frequently."

Art lover Vijaya Koti said Chitra Jatre was indeed a big fair for artists and art lovers. "We usually see art works in only galleries. But here, we could see them in hundreds," he said.

Chief guest S P Ravikantegouda inaugurated Chitra Jatre in the presence of Cantonment Board vice-president Sajeed Shaikh, Goa-based art collector Jerman D'Mello, artists Dr Subhash Kammar, F V Chikkamath, D S Chougule, Chandrakant Kusnoor and other dignitaries.