EMPATHY thru ART – Express your support for the efforts of COVID-19 WARRIORS! – An Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR, MEA, Govt. of India) initiativeCalling all conscientious art & craft lovers – Indians, NRIs and Citizens of the World to participate – Express yourself on COVID-19 and its aftermath! – submit your artwork (paper, canvas, oil, watercolours, digital art, folk art) and express your solidarity with COVID-19 Warriors in India and around the world! Calling all professional, amateur artists and artisans to participate enthusiastically and submit your work online, by 1st May 2020!ICCR actively participates in the formulation and implementation of policies and programmes pertaining to India’s external cultural relations; to foster and strengthen cultural relations and mutual understanding between India and other countries; to promote cultural exchanges with other countries and people, and to develop relations with nations.Thanks to Namrata Kumar DDG, ICCR, for giving Heart for Art an opportunity to help out in this wonderful initiative!
Phad painter brother duo Vijay Joshi and Vivek Joshi from Shahpura, Rajasthan conveyed awareness to the public of India on corona virus through Phad painting. Earlier Joshi brothers raised awareness message through Phad paintings on many social issue.PHAD ARTOne of the most ancient arts of India, Phad paintings of the Bhilwara/Shahpura region of Rajasthan can be traced back to more than 700 years. Phad means ‘to read’ and these paintings are based on songs of legendary Pabuji and Devnarayan that are sung by Bhopa singers. The art known not only for its vibrant colours, but also the fact that it is accompanied by an oral tradition of rendering gatha (folklore). Hand-woven cloth is soaked overnight so that the threads get thicker. It is then starched, burnished for a smooth and shiny surface and then the Phad painter draws the entire narrative on this canvas. The figures are rounded, wear traditional attire and headgear and bright colours are used to fill them in. The colours are painstakingly extracted from natural sources—stones, flowers, herbs.
The results are displayed on the portal: https://iccr4art.com/ . Visit the site to see the winners out of more than 8000 works.
Artworks by our folk artists- Suman and Rupsona Chitrakar- Bengal Patachitra artist duo, Rakhi Salunke – Warli artist, Krishna Kumar Jha- Madhubani/Mithila artist, Pramod Kumar – Odisha Patachitra artist, Padma Dhanalakota -Cherial artist, Vivek Joshi- Phad artist who participated in art competition in the time of CORONA -EMPATHY thru ART – An Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR, MEA, Govt. of India) initiative.
Madhubani painting by Krishna Kumar Jha 
Cherial Painting by Padma Dhanalakota
Odisha Pattachitra by Pramod Kumar Maharana 
Odisha Palm Leaf Pattachitra by Pramod Kumar Maharana
Bengal Pattachitra by Rupsona Chitrakar 
Bengal Pattachitra by Suman Chitrakar 
Warli Painting by Rakhi Salunke