ART BEYOND CANVAS

WO roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference. These final lines of the poem The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost could easily describe the journey of Sreeja Kalappurakkal, a self-taught artist from Thrissur.

- PARVANA K B

While most artists stick to traditional canvases, Sreeja sees art in the everyday. Over the years, she's painted on feathers, stones, and even seashells. But recently, she chose an even harder surface to create art, something most people throw away without a second thought—coconut shells.

In her new exhibition titled 'Shararanthal' at David Hall Art Gallery, Sreeja brings life into these discarded coconut shells. Using acrylic paints, she carefully polishes and transforms each one into a memory capsule of nostalgic scenes of the state. Including the canvas paintings, around 500 artworks were on display at the exhibition, which was held from April 9 to 17.