Fillip to art & artist

Sheetal

Some people are destined to create. Harsh truth, the road to being an artist is not so easy. Support in form of a scholarship or fellowship lends a huge helping hand. The Sohan Qadri Fellowship has been awarded to two artists this time around— Gurpreet Singh and Aparneet Mann who will get Rs 2 lakh each by the Punjab Lalit Kala Akademi gave the grant to two artists this year around. This duo was selected in an interview conducted by internationally renowned artists Sudarshan Shetty and Bose Krishnamachari.

Gurpreet Singh’s works are steeped in his roots. He is from village Bhattian, near Khanna and mostly works with clay and charcoal. He plans to experiment with other mediums as well through the opportunity he has got after winning the fellowship. “The place where I belong to, no one understands what I actually do. My family is happy but they do not relate to my work. Only my father respects what I create,” he shares. In his works he often evokes the remnants of his childhood drawings and how he perceives them now. One of his paintings that won him the coveted fellowship represents the circle of his imagination – his start from his early years in the village and how his work changed post the exposure he got at Government College of Arts, Chandigarh.

Aparneet Mann, a mother of two, teaches at Strawberry Fields High School. She juggled many roles and had almost lost hope of carrying on her artistic journey ahead. “I never imagined in my wildest dreams that I could be the lucky winner.” There was a time when she thought that all the dreams about doing something remarkable were a lost game. “This fellowship gives me a fresh start.” Even when caught in the demanding roles of a wife and mother, she managed to keep working as a teacher and on her art works that impressed the judges.