Over 1,000 paintings on display till Jan.18

Mysuru: For the first time, Bahuroopi, the annual National Theatre Festival hosted by Rangayana here, has also included a ‘Kala Mela’ featuring a vast spread of paintings including abstract paintings, landscapes, natural wonders and historical idols.

The art exhibits range from contemporary to Tanjore style and in short, a visual treat for connoisseurs of art.

Over 1,000 paintings crafted by artists from Chamarajendra Government College for Visual Arts (earlier CAVA), Kalaniketana School of Arts and Vyjayanti School of Arts are on display.

The paintings are of Various sizes from 1 ft x 1 ft to 6ft x 4 ft valued from Rs.5,000 to Rs.5 lakh. The expo, open daily from 10 am to 10 pm, closes on Jan.18.

‘Kala Mela’ Convenor and Kalaniketana School of Arts Principal Mahadeva Shetty said that visitors to the expo can buy the exhibits of their choice. He further said that Rangayana initially planned to organise a day-long ‘Chitra Santhe’ but later chose to organise a full-fledged ‘Kala Mela’ involving a large number of artists. Artist T.S. Murali has come out with landscape paintings portraying various important locations in the State.

Varuna Government High School Art Teacher Murali has evolved pictures of humans and dogs using ink dots.

Artist R. Shivakumar has excellently painted pictures of Gods and Goddesses like Chamundeshwari, Vishnu, Lakshmi, Saraswati and Krishna.

Sister Rocks: Explaining the rare painting of ‘Sister Rocks,’ Artist Murali said that the unique pair of rocks each supporting the weight of the other on the way to Hampi was once called as  ‘Sister Rocks.’ However, now they have parted possibly owing to weathering action.

Murali has also painted a picture called ‘Vimana Bande’ found near the Panchamukhi Anjaneyaswamy Temple  in Mantralaya.