Last July, PS Padmini was walking between the paintings that she brought to the Museum hall in Thiruvananthapuram for her fourth art exhibition in nine years. Then 82, Padmini had endeared herself to the visitors with the excitement of a child while she spoke of her paintings and crafts. Now a year older, Padmini, with the help of her children, is having a virtual exhibition of 165 of her artworks. Not just to exhibit to the world but to use the money from selling the work to build a house for an underprivileged girl in Thiruvananthapuram.
Prakash P Gopinath, son of Padmini and Cycle Mayor of Thiruvananthapuram, says, “Vattiyoorkavu MLA and former Mayor VK Prasanth asked if we knew an NGO that could raise funds to build a home for the girl, whose mud-house got washed away in the rain a few years ago. The girl, a Class 9 student, her brother, mother and mother’s husband live in a tiny shed now and when it is night, they go to sleep in her aunt’s place. When the MLA told us her story, we decided to hold an exhibition of mother’s artwork and raise funds from selling it.”
The exhibition ‘Breaking Impossibilities’ began on July 6 and will go on till August 4, 2020. “It is the online gallery of a German firm where we can put 168 exhibits,” says Prakash.
Art works by PS Padmini
Padmini, who had been under the weather for a while, was more than happy to contribute her works for the cause and began making new paintings too. “I like every kind of painting – water, acrylic, oil. There are the ones I do on canvas or paper or glass or sari. Some would be with thread. I like drawing pictures of children and flowers, birds and scenery and murals too,” Padmini says.
She has been a student of artist George Fernandez for 17 years now, beginning her art classes in her 60s. Padmini had been a school headmistress before that, and then a coordinator for the state unit of the United Nations International Children's Fund (UNICEF).
Her exhibition is available here.
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