In one of his hugely popular TED talks, British author and speaker Ken Robinson voiced his concerns on how education robs children of creativity.
Robinson, like Picasso, believes all children are born artists. But many of them are not able to remain artists, let alone flourish and blossom, as “we educate them out of their creative capacities”, rues Robinson.
The illustration that won Akhil Mohan the national award
Staying connected to nature can perhaps counter the negative effects of education. It occurred to me while I was taking a look at the works of art displayed at the National Exhibition of Art held at the National Gallery of Modern Art, Bengaluru, recently. Most of the national award-winning works featured in the exhibition are inspired by nature.
For Akhil Mohan, 28, a promising artist from Kerala, nature has been a perennial source of inspiration. '' My house is at the top of a hillock, surrounded by paddy fields,'' says Mohan who has done a series of 22 works, that capture scenes of life in the countryside and farming. The work that won him national award this year is also part of this series. It depicts an untidy bundle of rice straw.
Twin Fish by Harish Kumar Oha
A cotton farmer, Satish Hanumanthappa Multhalli finds happiness in nature and rural life. A sieve that his mother uses to winnow grain took his fancy. The 37-year-old from Kaveri district in Karnataka recreated the sieve with ink on acid paper and it won him the national award.
Harish Kumar Ojha from Uttar Pradesh believes living close to nature can make one more creative. “I learnt the basics of art from nature. There was so much to learn from the fields where we grew rice, wheat, mustard and pulses,” says Ojha, who has drawn inspiration from India's tribal and folk art, too. Ojha won the award for his twisted paper twin fish.
