Asha Hari Nair is a 36-year-outdated mom of two, who was married at an early age. “It was after marriage that I completed my BA in economics, but never thought of being a working woman. My pass time was to sketch and draw,” says Asha, who offers credit score to her to her husband, Hari Nair, who she says, “encouraged me to get involved in creative arts.” After years of experimenting on her personal, Asha determined to hone her creative abilities and joined Chitrakala Parishath (CKP) in Bengaluru.
“Before my training here, I was into pencil sketches, portraits and human figures. But after this short training, I discovered my talent for landscaping and making murals. CKP helped me learn the nuances of colour combinations and how one can use the canvas in varied ways. It also boosted my confidence when it came to my art and I was confident to share or sell my work.”
Soon, by phrase of mouth, “there was no internet when I started,” Asha began promoting one murals at a time and slowly began getting orders too. In truth, she nonetheless remembers the primary piece she offered. “It was an abstract painting in acrylic depicting a father, mother and child,” recollects the artist.
Now she paints on bottles and can be into making Nettipattams (the normal elephant head gear) and Kerala mural artwork. “Normally, natural colours are used in this art form. As most of these colours are hard to come by, I use acrylic paints in my murals — there is a slight difference. In the original Kerala mural art, the same colour is painted over and over almost 20-30 times to get a darker shade, otherwise the colours are very light. Though some traditionalists still continue to make these murals with natural colours, some have switched to acrylics,” she explains.
Asha is glad that she will now attain out to extra individuals by social media and provides she can be keen about instructing artwork to kids. Ask her if artwork may be taught or whether it is an inborn expertise, Asha responds, “If a child is exposed to art at an early age, he will take to it naturally. In fact, I have observed that painting, drawing and colouring can calm a child’s mind besides helping the shape their imagination, creativity and improve their handwriting.”
