Painting walls in colours of the world

The idea was mooted by the core members of the Cultural Centre like Harpreet Singh, Rajinder and Gauri who have been involved with children for a long time. "You get to see walls of children’s centres painted in countries like China and Japan. Children get interested in painting and drawing when they have an inspiring background. Since a lot of activities for children take place here, we thought it would be better to have the walls painted to suit them," Rajinder told Newsline.

Though some of them have strayed into abstract, most of them have stuck to themes that interest children. Harpreet has Ravana of the present-day Ramlila, Aditya Pande depicts India of the next century, Rajinder has crafted Chandigarh’s geometry but it is the bubbly children under the trees by Amanpreet and Gauri that will lure the little minds. The only shortcoming of an otherwise interesting venture is absence of more dragons, dancing fish and such attractive pieces for children. "Yes, we will involve the children next time," noted Aditya.

However, the painted walls would remain so for another two or three years, assured the artists. "We have used water-based colours, mostly acrylics. But there is a lot of fun in painting on the walls due to freedom of space," was the usual refrain. Now the youngsters intend to include many other activities associated with it, such as involving senior artists to conduct workshops with slide shows and conducting workshops-cum-exhibitions for children.