Kathmandu:

Three of our artist clinched top prizes in three different categories at the yearly art competition ‘Eighth Eastern Region Art Exhibition’ organised by the stationary-giant Camel Foundation in Patna, India. Milan Rai won in the Professional category, Sangee Shrestha in the category of Art Teacher and Dipendra Banepali in the Student category. The artists won cash prizes of IRs 25,000, IRs 15, 000 and IRs 10,000 for Professional, Art Teacher and Student categories respectively.

On his winning painting, the self-taught Rai says, “I ha-ve tried to show that darkness is just the absence of light.” His painting won the top prize for its “speed and artistic quality, more than its technical mastery”.

Shrestha too shares, “I had given more depth to my painting. It is a little set apart from the rest of the contemporary Nepali paintings. People’s feelings cannot be accommodated in words, I have tried to depict this through colours.”

Winning in the Student category, Banepali shares, “ I tried to show the offerings being made at the Chobar Ganesh temple,” he says. “The judges congratulated me on my win, but also wa-rned that this is only the first step in my journey and that I should continue painting seriously in the days to come.”