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Winning strokes
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Sadhvi Mani paints her sari, and takes home an award
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Photo K. Ananthan
winneR ALL THE WAY The sari painted by Sadhvi Mani
When you enter Sadhvi Mani’s home in Sivananda Colony, you instinctively know it belongs to an artist. Paintings and sculptures of all shapes hang alongside the staircase leading to her first-floor house, and inside it.
She learnt painting 30 years ago. In the decades that followed, she honed her skills in a range of other crafts, even travelling to Bangalore to learn a new art form. And, won awards too, the most recent being the National-level Fevicryl Award for Creative Excellence 2006.
Good finish
She bagged the prize for her meticulous fabric painting of roses and rose buds on an off-white and black silk cotton sari. When she started work on it, Sadhvi, a Fevicryl and Anchor craft instructor, little expected to win an award. “I’m very lazy,” she smiles. “I chose the easiest design which needed only one brush stroke. But, I stretched the sari over an unused aari cot to get a good finish,” she explains, drawing out the design on a paper to show you how easy it is.
She worked on it for two months, and sent off a picture to the organisers, with a step-by-step instruction sheet, hoping it would at least be noticed at the regional level. It came third, and was sent to take part in the National-level contest. There, Sadhvi’s neat execution impressed the judges, who awarded her the first prize of Rs. 25,000 in the ‘fabric painting’ category.
But, she is not ready to rest on her laurels. She plans to take part this year too, but in another category and is already working on something “different”.
Sadhvi also conducts classes in all kinds of art at her Vasavi Arts and Crafts school. For details, call 0422-2494431.
SUBHA J RAO
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