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Life in colours
- By Rajni Padaruth
- Published 27th June, 2008
- Women's Voice
- Unrated
Neermala Luckeenarain, Lecturer in Print-making, Fine Arts Department at the Mahatma Gandhi Institute, says that Art is the expression of life and feelings. “It starts with colour and self-discipline permitting a merging of one’s visual abstractions and other emotional experiences into harmonious pictures, reflecting one’s times and moments in life,” she says.
According to her, there is a need to work very hard to encourage students to take up Fine Arts in Mauritius. “Unfortunately we have very few galleries, to showcase art works. We should bring art to the public by getting people from outside or inside to share their knowledge of arts. Fine art is not simply about pictures. It also covers visual and performing art forms, sculpture, dance, theatre, architecture and Print-making, digital art etc. Initially, the field of Fine arts was very limited, but now things are changing and people are more aware,” she says.
In 1978, Neermala completed her Bachelor of Arts at the J.J School of Arts in Bombay and her Masters in Print-making. One year later she got a bronze medal in sculpture in wood work. Neermala did not stop there, and enhanced her talent by continuing her studies and completed her specialization in Print-making. Later in 1980, she secured a job as a part time lecturer at the MGI.
According to Neermala, Fine Arts can prove to be a costly subject as a student is required to buy a lot of material. “Print-making is very expensive because the material we need to work with is not available in Mauritius. We have to import all the material from Pune, Mumbai, Delhi. One needs the right quality, right material to
do the right work. I must say that one has to find some other job to earn a living, because it is not easy to survive solely on artistic work at the initial stage,” she says.
She recalls how she started painting at the age of nine and used to pluck guavas ( goyave de Chine) to paint. She was then supposed to go to study Geography in Calcutta but her mother encouraged her to go for Fine Arts instead of Geography. “Today, all the credit goes to my mother. To reach up to this level I worked hard and throughout my career my mother always encouraged and supported me. Looking back, I don't regret that I did not go for Geography,” she says.
She also adds: “I organized an international workshop in print making in 2006 and in 2007 I organised the International Women's Day exhibition. I started from Poland, which is known as the heart of Print-making and later I went to Yugoslavia, Romania, Czechoslovakia, India, Belize, and Taiwan. I got a big opportunity to meet other artists around the world and this is important because Mauritius is a very small country and we have to go beyond the horizon to know and learn about the field today.”
On the role of women in today's society, Neermala feels that women are playing two roles and are working hard. “They fulfil their duties of nurturing children, and household chores as well as assuming the burden of working outside. Today they are lawyers, teachers, doctors, and successful career businesswomen. It is not like in the earlier days, when we were under the pressure of the father to stay at home. The thinking at the time was that, if you have a daughter give her a needle to sew and if you have a son give him an education. Women are now very successful at merging work and family with respect and dignity,” she says.
According to her, there is a need to work very hard to encourage students to take up Fine Arts in Mauritius. “Unfortunately we have very few galleries, to showcase art works. We should bring art to the public by getting people from outside or inside to share their knowledge of arts. Fine art is not simply about pictures. It also covers visual and performing art forms, sculpture, dance, theatre, architecture and Print-making, digital art etc. Initially, the field of Fine arts was very limited, but now things are changing and people are more aware,” she says.
In 1978, Neermala completed her Bachelor of Arts at the J.J School of Arts in Bombay and her Masters in Print-making. One year later she got a bronze medal in sculpture in wood work. Neermala did not stop there, and enhanced her talent by continuing her studies and completed her specialization in Print-making. Later in 1980, she secured a job as a part time lecturer at the MGI.
According to Neermala, Fine Arts can prove to be a costly subject as a student is required to buy a lot of material. “Print-making is very expensive because the material we need to work with is not available in Mauritius. We have to import all the material from Pune, Mumbai, Delhi. One needs the right quality, right material to
She recalls how she started painting at the age of nine and used to pluck guavas ( goyave de Chine) to paint. She was then supposed to go to study Geography in Calcutta but her mother encouraged her to go for Fine Arts instead of Geography. “Today, all the credit goes to my mother. To reach up to this level I worked hard and throughout my career my mother always encouraged and supported me. Looking back, I don't regret that I did not go for Geography,” she says.
She also adds: “I organized an international workshop in print making in 2006 and in 2007 I organised the International Women's Day exhibition. I started from Poland, which is known as the heart of Print-making and later I went to Yugoslavia, Romania, Czechoslovakia, India, Belize, and Taiwan. I got a big opportunity to meet other artists around the world and this is important because Mauritius is a very small country and we have to go beyond the horizon to know and learn about the field today.”
On the role of women in today's society, Neermala feels that women are playing two roles and are working hard. “They fulfil their duties of nurturing children, and household chores as well as assuming the burden of working outside. Today they are lawyers, teachers, doctors, and successful career businesswomen. It is not like in the earlier days, when we were under the pressure of the father to stay at home. The thinking at the time was that, if you have a daughter give her a needle to sew and if you have a son give him an education. Women are now very successful at merging work and family with respect and dignity,” she says.
