Son of cartoonist father, 12-yr-old Antariksha loves Husain
BHOPAL : Antariksha Sethiya, all of 12 years, has, so far, won 109 awards in painting contests including seven international and eight national. The child artist, who studies in grade 8 in Jawaharlal Nehru School, BHEL has been scoring first position in Picasso International Painting Competition for the past five years. He was the first prize winner in the state-level competition on conservation of energy held in November, 2015.
Antariksha works in all media including acrylics, water, oil, pencil etc. He has made around 40 acrylic and oil on canvas. He painted on 3X3 feet canvas.
Sethiya, whose inspiration is eminent painter Maqbool Fida Husain, says, “I was interested in painting since my childhood. My parents noticed my interest and I started learning painting from my drawing teacher B.K. Pillai when I was in grade two. Nowadays, I’m learning painting from city-based senior artist Raj Saini. My father, who works in Bank of India, is a cartoonist and my mother is a housewife. She is a graduate in Fine Arts and both my parents encourage me a lot.”
He has exhibited his works in various group exhibitions in the city’s galleries including Swaraj Bhavan, Shaheed Bhavan and Community Hall T.T. Nagar.
When he was 10, he participated in a wall-painting competition organised by the BMC and won a special prize. He made 6X10 ft painting on collectorate wall which sends out the message of quitting smoking.
He has also made two 6X8 ft wall paintings on his school wall in 2015. One of his posters was selected for this year’s Save the Arctic campaign Greenland, and after printing on post-card, it was posted to Norwegian government as a part of the campaign.
Wants to make career in painting
“Earlier, painting was my hobby but after getting a lot of appreciation, now I want to make career in this field. Also, I want to highlight some issues like water, tree and animals through I like to work on abstract as well as Modern art work. The work of Husain attracts me a lot since the beginning although I don’t understand his work”, said Sethiya whose other hobbies are swimming and singing.
He participated in Save Tiger campaign and since then he has made around eight paintings on Tiger and five on other wild animals. He wants to spread the message of saving tiger through his paintings. Apart from painting, he also makes collage, cartoons and writes slogan.
