Angelinah Maraiah Patel, ‘Goa’s First Baby Artist’, recently had her art exhibited for the
first time at INOX Multiplex and then at Kala Academy, Panjim. A number of her
works of art were put on display and were up for sale as well.
At the age of five (soon to turn six, as she mentions
excitedly), Angelinah, a student of King’s School, Mugali, may well be Goa’s
youngest artist, and is being encouraged in the pursuit of her budding passion
by her proud and enthusiastic parents, Dinesh and Sheeba Patel.
Speaking about what got his daughter interested in art and all
that led up to the hosting of this exhibition, Dinesh says, “When we went to
Spain, and visited the Pablo Picasso museum, Angelinah seemed to have been
inspired to create on her own. She was never much of a scribbler, scribbling on
the walls as kids do, but when we gave her a piece of paper, we were amazed by
what she could do. At first, of course, we dismissed it as child’s play, but
when we saw her knack for capturing expressions and coming up with unique
colour combinations and detailed design, we realised that she is an artist.”
A confident and enthusiastic child, Angelinah is not one to let
her parents do all the talking, emphatically pointing out which of the
paintings are her favourite and describing the crayons and sketch pens she uses
to create. Her subjects are those that a lot of little girls could relate to –
ponies, fairies, princesses, Barbie dolls and even Taylor Swift, her favourite
popstar. “I love ‘Frozen’; Elsa and Anna are my favourite!” she says.
As part of a creative family, with her father an author with
several publications to his credit, and her older sister Shnaia having written
her first book at the age of 12, Angelinah has plenty of inspiration to draw
from. However, she refuses to take direction from anyone! “She paints whenever
she is inspired and whatever she likes – if she wants to put a pink streak in a
princess’s hair and we tell her that’s not what the princess looks like, she
will not listen. She does not take our inputs!” laughingly says her mother.
“All the details in her paintings – we have not shown her anything. This all
her,” adds her father, proudly.
With
the exhibition as only the first step, the Patel family has big plans for their
little art-enthusiast, planning further exhibitions across Europe, in Iceland,
Germany and Luxembourg. Knowing her talent, they plan to motivate her to
develop it, whether in terms of art school or speaking to artists. However,
with her being so young, and her entire future ahead of her, they are also
letting her dream her dreams and aspire to be whatever she wants – be it an
artist one day, or a pop star the next!
