Puttur: Artist transforms well constructed under NAREGA into a unique masterpiece

Puttur: If you visit the courtyard of Padmanabha Naik’s house in Kolthige village you may be surprised to find a huge bronze pot in the courtyard. On careful inspection, a well reveals itself. The clever and unique artistic impression is attracting onlookers ever since it was completed recently.

Padmanabha Naik of Bellare, who runs the Kalasuma arts, built a well using the employment guarantee scheme NAREGA. Armed with a paintbrush and colors, he poured his artistic talent to transform the boring old well into artwork.

It all began with the dream that Padmanabha’s father had for their ancestral home. Living in a joint family, Padmanabha’s father expressed his desire to build a well for drinking water. Taking up the task, Padmanabha applied at the Kolthige Grama Panchayat for grants under the NAREGA scheme. He soon got approval for a subsidy of Rs 67,000 for wages and construction materials through the scheme.

The work soon began but got delayed a little due to the Covid Pandemic. The Naik brothers, all 8 of them, toiled hard to build a 35-feet deep well with 34 rings installed.

However, the well looked too plain for this artist’s taste. Using his experience, Padmanabha got to work with a paintbrush and transformed the well into an artwork resembling a bronze pot that s usually used in rural households.

When asked about his inspiration, Padmanabha said, he wanted to beautify his courtyard and the plain well was a bit crude. “So I decided to paint the walls in a unique way,” he said.