Asha Hari Nair is a 36-year-old mother of two, who was married at an early age. “It was after marriage that I completed my BA in economics, but never thought of being a working woman. My pass time was to sketch and draw,” says Asha, who gives credit to her to her husband, Hari Nair, who she says, “encouraged me to get involved in creative arts.” After years of experimenting on her own, Asha decided to hone her artistic skills and joined Chitrakala Parishath (CKP) in Bengaluru.
“Before my training here, I was into pencil sketches, portraits and human figures. But after this short training, I discovered my talent for landscaping and making murals. CKP helped me learn the nuances of colour combinations and how one can use the canvas in varied ways. It also boosted my confidence when it came to my art and I was confident to share or sell my work.”
Soon, through word of mouth, “there was no internet when I started,” Asha started selling one work of art at a time and slowly started getting orders too. In fact, she still remembers the first piece she sold. “It was an abstract painting in acrylic depicting a father, mother and child,” recalls the artist.
Now she paints on bottles and is also into making Nettipattams (the traditional elephant head gear) and Kerala mural art. “Normally, natural colours are used in this art form. As most of these colours are hard to come by, I use acrylic paints in my murals — there is a slight difference. In the original Kerala mural art, the same colour is painted over and over almost 20-30 times to get a darker shade, otherwise the colours are very light. Though some traditionalists still continue to make these murals with natural colours, some have switched to acrylics,” she explains.
Asha is happy that she can now reach out to more people through social media and adds she is also passionate about teaching art to children. Ask her if art can be taught or if it is an inborn talent, Asha responds, “If a child is exposed to art at an early age, he will take to it naturally. In fact, I have observed that painting, drawing and colouring can calm a child’s mind besides helping the shape their imagination, creativity and improve their handwriting.”