Elsa Noby stands proudly before her acrylic painting of a house in the woods. She is only in the fourth standard and can count on the fingers of one hand the number of years she has been painting for, but her canvas hangs on the hallowed walls of the Durbar Hall Art Gallery.
Elsa’s painting is on show at the gallery as part of Expecta/Prateeksha, a five-day exhibition that has collated art work by 58 children aged between five and 18 years from different parts of Ernakulam. Rev. Ebey Edassery, a member of the Company of Artists for Radiance of Peace (CARP), which organised the exhibition, said: “Most of these children have never seen a canvas or held a brush before. We held a few camps and workshops in Neericode and Chakkaraparambu and tried to inculcate an interest in art. Children across ages have taken to it without any training.”
“Rather than spend hours on the mobile phone, art is a useful creative outlet for children,” said Brighty Emmanuel, whose daughter Jiyanna Maria is excited about exhibiting her first canvas painting of a tree in a storm. “While it’s important to let children doodle idly, a lot of thought and creativity has gone behind the work here,” said Rev Edassery. Maria Rosa Koshy, a student in the seventh standard, spoke about her painting of a child swinging on a leafless tree: “We’ll have to face the consequences as we cut trees and leave them bare.” The exhibition is under way till June 16.