It was a classroom kind of atmosphere with everyone working and sharing tips, chatting away and looking at one another’s works in a critical appraisal as 60 upcoming and established artists grappled with their emotions in trying to portray their experiences of the very severe cyclonic storm Hudhud that tore through the city a month ago.
The wounds are too fresh to be forget or heal. The artists were trying hard to express vividly with acrylic on canvas on Sunday, the first day of the two-day art camp jointly organised by the AP Tourism Development Corporation and the Andhra University Department of Fine Arts on the Beach Road.
The art camp conducted as part of Rejuvenating Vizag carnival being organised by the APTDC to celebrate the resilience of people of the city in bouncing back in quick time had many students of the Department of Fine Arts and also some self-taught and trained professionals, professor in AU Department of Fine Arts Ravi Shankar Patnaik said. This is a good platform for artists to come together, share and learn, he said, appreciating the effort of Special Chief Secretary (Tourism) Chandana Khan for having APTDC conduct the camp.
“It has been a long time since we had such a camp to work together,” city-based artist Abraham said, pointing out that it was a good learning experience looking at others work.
Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu is scheduled to inaugurate the exhibition of paintings done in the two-day Art Camp on the Beach Road. The exhibition of paintings on the same location would continue on Tuesday.
Noting the absence of a proper art gallery in the city, Special Chief Secretary (Tourism) Chandana Khan has asked the APTDC to build an art gallery on the Ramakrishna Beach where any artist would be able to display his or her works.
Further, the proposed art gallery would be the venue for permanent display of the paintings produced by city artists at the two-day Art Camp, sources said.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Visakhapatnam / by Special Correspondent / Visakhapatnam – November 17th, 2014