For five-year-old Ishan, recreating what he sees around him is a passion. He depicts the objects that attract him most with pencil, crayons, oil pastel and water colour.
Be it a pencil drawing or painting, it has a story to tell; perhaps an episode of experience he had while visiting a mall or a wadi or a hilly area.
But these scenes are not recreated in a realistic style, but revisited with an artistic perspective.
For instance, a helicopter flying in the sky is so close a sight for him that he captures it just above his father’s car parked on the roadside. His other works such as the night birds, a rabbit on the river bank, a wooden bridge across the river, Santa Claus with a lantern etc too are beautiful artistic expressions in elegant lines and pleasant colours.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, when children were forced to stay indoors most of the time as schools remained closed, many of them got ample time to develop their latent talent, and Ishan was no exception.
A KG2 student at Middle East Nursery in Muscat, Ishan has been making maximum use of his leisure time by giving shape to his thoughts and emotions. In other words, he has been lending colour to his imagination.
The parents of Ishan, who hail from the Indian state of Kerala, spotted their ward’s artistic inclinations at an early stage and they have since been encouraging him to develop his skills.
Speaking about his son’s initiation into the art, Rajiv Mahadevan, an engineer, recalled that the boy showed his interest in drawing pictures at the tender age of two. The vague images that he tried to draw weren’t much different from those his peers would do. However, his mother Devi, who is a doctor by profession, identified the budding artist in him and motivated him to do more works.
“He is yet to be given any professional training. But he learns by himself watching YouTube videos and acquires new techniques step by step and improves day by day”, says Rajiv.
The little artist has a long way to go, but he holds much promise.
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