It was a vibrant and colourful Sunday evening that wore thelively shades of life and descended on Black Box at Ravindra Bhavan in Margao.The kids, their parents and their beloved art teacher Indira Pai Anglo hadspecially gathered to celebrate an unusual birthday. Someone or something wasdefinitely born or was it reborn? Yes, it was the naming ceremony of the artand design community that has been active for over a year. Veteran art loverand 90-year-old businessman Mohandas Nayak cut the cake and announced thisone-year-old baby of Indira as Canopy Azure “ meaning ‘under the clear bluesky.’
Allowing the kids and their parents to express themselves onstage Canopy Azure community won applauds and praises for the beautiful art anddesign exhibition. “I paint whatever comes to my mind,” said Dhruv Timblo influent English. Ishani Kakodkar shared in excellent, literary Konkani that shewas thankful to learn the right way to paint a picture and Indu admitted thatthe art and design community has improved her skills to a great extent. “I lovemy teacher very much because she makes me happy,” exclaimed little Kaelyn SantaRita Vaz throwing all smiles at the gathering. All had loads of praises fortheir talented Indira teacher for introducing them to the wonderful world ofcolours.
“Indira made my life beautiful. Having been introduced withthe paint brush and strokes I was at peace with myself finally,” expressedVilda Timblo, a young mother who began painting with her five-year-old sonDhruv few months ago and boasts today that her sketches have been hung on thesame wall with the paintings of her young one. There was one common string ineach excited voice “ they vouched that they would gather under this canopy andwith due respect for the written word, continue with lines, strokes, dots,sketches and colours.
Making all this possible was a dream come true for Indira, aborn artist and a professional in commercial art who has also specialised inphotography from the Art School. “I wanted to tap the cross section of thecommunity and bring out the hidden talent in people of all ages, nurture andpolish it to fit in the art-world frame,” says Indira who realised that worldis wider canvas and each person is bestowed with beautiful vision for lookingat things in his/her own perspective. She adds, “There is so much stress intoday’s world and it comes in the way of happiness. I wanted to allow one andall to join me and make art a fun activity so that each person enjoys the actand at the same time gains personally through this platform.”
Under Canopy Azure, Indira plans to teach the young as wellas elderly students various forms of art throughout the year and hold annualactivities like outdoor sketching, nature and environment painting as well as‘Art & Design Fest’ where selected pieces of art will be exhibited.
