Arte Creativas set to host the first Kolkata Watercolour Festival

The festival will include an exhibition of 75 artists as well as three workshops
Sanghamitra Roy Majumder
Sanghamitra Roy Majumder

Arte Creativas, a Kolkata-based community of artists, that encourages and promotes the learning and propagation of different visual art forms is all set to host a one-of-a-kind watercolour festival this month.

The Kolkata Watercolour Festival or the 1st Acuarela Fiesta, as it is called, will showcase the works of 75 artists, from different parts of the country, as well as from Bangladesh and Nepal. The exhibition, besides showcasing the works of eminent artists will also promote the works of self-taught artists and students, who have recently ventured into the field of fine arts.

<em>Mukesh Mahato Nuniya</em>
Mukesh Mahato Nuniya

The six-day festival will see art workshops, especially centred on the use of watercolours, being conducted by eminent artists like Praween Karmakar, Badal Pal and Malay Das. The workshop is meant especially for people more 20 years of age, who are practising art professionally for a considerable time.

The event will be inaugurated by Shuvaprasanna Bhattacharjee, with art critic Debabrata Chatterjee, curator of Halo Heritage, Reshmi Chatterjee and chairman and managing director of HIDCO, Debashis Sen, in attendance, among others.

<em>Ankita Dey Bhoumik</em>
Ankita Dey Bhoumik

“We want to provide an opportunity to all the talented people from cities as well as rural areas, so that they get a good exposure, and their creativity is noticed by people, not just in Kolkata but all over India,” says Ankita Dey Bhoumik, one of the co-founders of Arte Creativas, who is also a self-taught artist.

Among the artwork showcased, you can find the work of artists like Sanghamitra Roy Majumder, Dhananjoy Karmakar, Ahsan Ahmed, Mukesh Mahato, Toma Saha, Shibnath Biswas, Shrabani Chakladar Ghosh and Shambhu Roy, among others.

<em>Ahsan Ahmed ( Bangladesh)</em>
Ahsan Ahmed ( Bangladesh)

While Sanghamitra is a self-taught artist, who ventured into figurative drawing and portrait painting, two years ago; Dhananjoy Karmakar is a full-time artist, who has had 15-20 group exhibitions in his six-year-long career.

“It was a trip to Europe, which inspired me to draw landscapes, as I was mesmerised by the countryside and the entire ambience of Europe. I even chose the colours which would be apt in depicting the places, surrounding the Mediterranean,” says Sanghamitra whose single avant-garde work will be displayed at the exhibition.

<em>Shambhu Roy</em>
Shambhu Roy

For Dhananjay, this exhibition will mark a beginning of the Gautama Buddha series, where he has tried to depict the Bodhisattva stage of Gautama Buddha’s life. He depicts the difference between the past and the present, through the use of black and white strokes and colour at different places in the same painting.

While the past is depicted through black and white strokes, a coloured green leaf depicts the present. “There are four works in the Gautama Buddha series, where I have tried to depict different themes- like the co-existence of Hinduism and Buddhism, and the earthquake in Nepal, among others,” he says, adding that it is Sanatan Dinda, whose works inspired him to create the Gautama Buddha series.

<em>Shrabani Chakladar Ghosh</em>
Shrabani Chakladar Ghosh

Apart from the exhibition, there would be different other stalls too, selling semi-precious stones, junk jewellery and other commodities. The festival will conclude with a musical performance by Fullora Mukhopadhaya and her group on the final day.

At Nazrul Tirtha. June 15- June 20. 2 pm – 8 pm.

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