Sercretary of the Karnataka Chitrakala Parishat called it a ‘desi gallery’. Mr D K Chawla told CNN-IBN  that the ‘Chitra Santhe’ held Sunday last on Kumara Krupa Rd., Bangalore, was an answer to the galleries. He claimed such a show hasn’t been held anywhere else before. The event attracted 1,400 artists who displayed their art on the pavement and an estimated 80,000 visitors. As ‘The Hindu’ put it, “away from the costly art galleries, the painters were talking, bargaining, striking deals with art lovers, genuine and cosmetic”. This is the third year of the event that attracted artists from many other states and also from several towns across Karnataka. There were 400 artists from Bangalore.

Carpenters  set up shop close by to frame paintings/photos. Roadside sketchers turned out pencil-sketches of customers within minutes. Sculptors, cartoonists and tattoo artists displayed their work.

The Chitra Santhe in Bangalore is once a year affair, held on every year-end Sunday. Our endeavour in Mysore would be to get an artists  boulevard going (see our item on this site), all round the year, every weekend. Wouldn’t that be great?