Kathmandu / Sixteen-year-old Shusmita Jimee of Nepal, was one of the youngest participants of the international exhibition of paintings and sculpture concluded at Nepal Art Council, Kathmandu on Sunday. 
Born at Lukla, known as Gateway to the Mt Everest, and pursuing fine arts as a passion, she had two paintings on display at the tri-nation exhibition. 

While one of her paintings portrayed magnificent Mt Machhapuchre, other one projected women's contributions to household affairs.

Altogether 194 paintings sketched by a total of 59 women artists from Nepal, India and Bangladesh were put up in display where the exhibition demonstrated women artists from three countries at their artistic brilliance.

The exhibition was jointly inaugurated by Bangladeshi Ambassador to Nepal Salahuddin Noman Chowdhury and former Chancellor of Nepal Academy of Fine Arts Ragini Upadhaya Grela on July 24. Eminent artists Sushma Raj Bhandari and Dr Seema Shah graced the inaugural event as the special guests. 

The paintings and drawings created by 20 Nepali, 27 Indian and 12 Bangladesh artists in different media such as acrylic on canvas, charcoal sketch and water colour among others were exhibited in the five-day event that attracted art lovers of all age group and walks of life.
 
A student of architecture Nabina Thapa came to the event to soak up her eyes in the beauty of paintings sketched by various women artists. The 22-year-old, standing against a vibrant paintings of flowers made on water colour, confided anything aesthetics catches her fancy including a charcoal sketch of a girl with wool in the exhibition.

It was the second tri-nation painting exhibition for Bangladesh's Lubna Habib. It was, however, her first exhibition in Nepal. The Bangladeshi artist shared that she made a comeback to fine arts after a long hiatus and was buoyed to have got a chance to present her artworks in Nepal despite an extended departure from painting.

Prior to this event, she held a solo exhibition in her home country and brought 10 selected paintings for this event, she divulged. 

India's Iti Bhattacharya, who forayed into the world of colours out of sheer passion and without any formal training and education in this field, expressed her joy for participating in the tri-nation exhibition. 

"Such events provide us a platform to showcase our work as well as offer good networking opportunity with fellow artists," the elderly artist gushed. 
The elderly artist's artwork themed 'Solitary' painted on acrylic canvas left many visitors in awe as well as in daze given its unique projection with bull as the theme of the painting and minimalistic use of colours.  

Nepal's Anuradha Thapa travelled from Biratnagar to showcase her artworks themed Lord Buddha. The 64-year-old, a graduate of fine arts from India, has been pursuing painting for the past 46 years. 
"I wish such events to keep happening for us to stay motivated and encourage young generation of artists," she expressed her wish during felicitation of senior artists in the closing ceremony.

Spread Wings, a network of women artists in India, Bangladeshi women artists group Ghuddi and Nepal's Lalitya Kala Jagaran collaborated to organize this event, informed Lalitya Kala Jagaran's Sushma Shrestha.

– Rosha Basnet/RSS