Artists turn Nehru Park into gallery of spring

NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 28: Today, Nehru Park became an open-air art gallery with painters and sculptors working amid spectators and selling ...

NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 28: Today, Nehru Park became an open-air art gallery with painters and sculptors working amid spectators and selling their work there itself. The New Delhi Municipal Council8217;s ambitious programme to give more colour to Delhi8217;s Sundays entered a new phase today with the inauguration of Srijan, a weekly artists8217; corner in Nehru Park. This follows the morning concerts in Lodhi Gardens and open-air restaurants in Connaught Place.

The colours of spring were unleashed at 11 a.m. today, taking by surprise the Sunday picnickers to the park. 8220;It is not that easy to come out of the studios,8221; said Paramjeet Singh, principal of the Delhi College of Arts. 8220;It makes a lot of people very nervous to paint in the open. There is so much participation and interaction,8221; he added.

Veteran artist Hari Ram stood at a distance wondering, 8220;I never felt the intensity of my own concentration as much as today.8221; Art professor Krishnan Ahuja was advising a student at distance:8220;If you do not paint today in the open, then forever you will be painting only in a studio.8221;

Those who worked only in the confines of a studio, took some time to acclimatise to the infinite dimensions of the open air. They took a stroll, watched other painters and came back boldly with a brush. Others just waited till the curious art lovers drifted away to another canvas and completed their work discretely. While the corner was designed by the sculptor Naresh Kapuria, it was coordinated with the NDMC by S.K. Mathur. Bulbul Sharma wanted to know, standing under a green dome of paintings, 8220;You think my duck is safe here?8221; Kapuria thought so. The duck was already sold for Rs 2,000.

The corner was inaugurated by the Delhi Lieutenant-Governor Vijai Kapoor. Other artists who were present there included Hemi Babha, Anjolie Ela Menon, Shanti Dave, Sarbjeet Singh, Umesh Verma, Subrata Kundu, Manju Naryanan and photographer Raghu Rai. The NDMC put up four canvases of their own, to be completed together by noted artists. Maximum contribution came for a canvas on Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee8217;s Pakistan trip. Drawing the outline, cartoonist Sudhir Tailang pointed out: 8220;Cartooning has become a performing art.8221; He then left the canvas to be completed by others to return only to find a rather too colourful piece of art inscribed Holi Hai8217;.

Sighing he looked around and said, 8220;Where is white? I want to clean up his face.8221; When he did not find any white colour left, he used saffron instead. Ashok Verma, a hotelier, loved sauntering among the sculptures and the paintings. 8220;Now, people can no more say that there are no places to visit in Delhi on a holiday.8221; He said, 8220;There is no cement or concrete here, we only have colours and canvases.8221;

Customs superintendent R.K. Saini went back inspired, yet shaken by the price at which art sold. He left promising himself: 8220;I will bring my friend who is a water-colour painter and make him sell some of the best landscape paintings for throwaway prices.8221;