Paintings by tribal children of a village 5km from Santiniketan were exhibited on the foundation day of the local club on Tuesday, thanks to the efforts of painter and Kala Bhavana alumnus Anoop M. Gopi.

Sona Murmu, secretary of the Bidyadharpur Adibasi Bikash Kendra — the club at Bidyadharpur village set up in 1998 — said they never expected their children would “paint even a bird”.

“Every year, we celebrate the foundation day of our club but it is special this year because of the exhibition of paintings by our boys and girls,” a proud Murmu said.

Around 30 paintings painted by tribal children aged between six and 14 depicted the rural landscape, trees, birds and pet animals.

Murmu said the credit for this went solely to their “Anoopda”. “Anoopda taught 35 tribal boys and girls how to paint during the lockdown,” Murmu said.

Anoop, 36, who received the prestigious Lalit Kala Akademi award from President Ram Nath Kovind,in March last year, said it happened by chance.

“I travel to tribal hamlets to catch various moods of tribal life and culture, and paint sitting on the ground. One day in July this year, three or four boys and girls from this village asked me if I could teach them how to paint. I could not refuse them,” said Anoop.

A junior fellow under the Union ministry of culture, Anoop, who hails from Thrissur in Kerala, came to Santiniketan in 2007 to pursue his masters’ degree in fine arts. After completing his two-year degree, he refused to leave Santiniketan and confessed to have fallen in love with Rabindranath Tagore, Baul songs and the life and culture of tribal people here.

The bearded, Bengali-speaking youth from Kerala whizzing by on an old motorbike is a familiar sight in Santiniketan and Bolpur now.

His free drawing class for tribal children has been a relevation, he said. “On the first day of class, I discovered that the tribal children were full of temperament and talent but it was financially impossible for them to buy papers or colours,” he said. He started buying papers and colours for them from his own pocket, curbing other costs from his monthly scholarship of Rs 10,000.

“I gave them my crayons, and papers too when I found out that they had a lot of ideas in their heads. There were only five students when I started the class and now there are 35. It gives me immense pleasure to know that I reached out to first generation painters,” said Anoop.

Rabindranath Murmu, a Class IX student of a local high school who painted a landscape for this exhibition, was so excited that the whole village would see it that he spent a “sleepless night”.

“Anoopda taught me how to paint and sketch a portrait or landscape. I was so excited when I first painted a tree. I’ll never miss any of his classes,” said Rabindranath.

Nowadays, children like Rabindranath literally “chase” Anoop when he reaches Bidyadharpur on his bike and waits till he hands them drawing sheets and colours.

“I have financial limitations but I am still happy to teach a group of boys and girls how to paint,” he said.