Crafting paint

An art kit based on SH Raza’s thematic oeuvre takes kids on a ‘colourless’ flight of fancy

Pottering around a museum gift shop that houses books and baubles, puzzles and paper puppets, and curios and whatnots — all speckled with history — can addle the brain. You want to pick rarities but end up adding a lot more to your basket. And if you forget your basket is a hobo bag with no wheels, you walk out lugging a heavy haul in the heat. Our previous visit to Dr Bhau Daji Lad Mumbai City Museum’s gift shop paints an analogous picture; with the additions of a big fat smile and a biggish art kit.

Our smile widened when the art kit reached 12-year-old Krishna Nagendra Yadav. Krishna likes art more than any of his other hobbies. A pack containing plain printouts of expressionist SH Raza’s artworks cheered the young artist — he knew he had to fill them up with colours. And when he discovered the catch, his eyes shone at the thrill of novelty. These prints were to be filled in with colours, but not the regular ones. “I wasn’t supposed to use pen, pencil, crayons or sketch pens. The pack has textured stickers made up of paper and rubber. I had to paint with these stickers,” Krishna tells us. He adds that the kit felt lush: “I didn’t know about the painter but the touch and feel of this package made me look him up. Ribbed stickers are new for me and they opened up a whole different world. I loved the paper quality of each of these prints.” How does a pre-teen value good-quality paper? Krishna explains that if he pulled a sticker out to rectify a mistake, the underlying part of the paper wouldn’t scrape off.

The kit that was put together by the museum to mark Raza’s 100th birth anniversary is a unique kinesthetic experience. It comes in quite a few variations. The museum shop has similar packages with artworks by Jamini Roy, Thota Vaikuntham, and Pablo Picasso among other artists. Our pre-teen reviewer informs us that while he would have preferred something like this during the boring days of the pandemic, he regrets that the pack doesn’t carry enough stickers to paint all the prints. We hope Krishna’s upcoming visit to the shop will compensate for that. 

Pic/Pradeep Dhivar

KNOW YOUR ART!
AGE GROUP: 8 to 16 years
TYPE: Art kit
PRICE: Rs 575
RATING: 3/4
AT: Dr BDL Museum, Byculla.

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