Thiruvananthapuram: The winners of the international children’s online painting competition that was held in memory of prodigious child artist Edmund Clint was announced yesterday by the Kerala Tourism Minister Kadakampally Surendran.
Nearly 39,000 paintings of age group 4-16 from as many as 96 countries were judged by the jury. The winners of the competition would be awarded a tour package that would include a five-night Kerala travel and they can be accompanied by two members of their family. There were about 110 winners of which 15 have been selected for tour packages with family, said the minister. The first place was bagged by Parth Joshi (12) of Vadodara, Gujarat, and apart from him four others were adjudged top winners.
Nafisa Tabassum Authay (14) of Bangladesh won the second prize. She along with nine other kids from abroad had won the top prizes.
Six-year-old Aaradhya P G came third and is among the 40 prize winners from the host state who would receive a cash award of Rs 10,000 each.
The first three prize-winners would get a certificate and a memento. Twenty other winners, too, would receive mementos. The artists whose works were shortlisted would get special prizes, while all the participants would receive certificates, the release said.
Clint (1976-83) was a boy from Kochi who drew more than 25,000 pictures in 2,522 days of his life before a prolonged illness cut short his life. Clint’s life has found portrayal in seven books and two documentaries besides in a 2017 Malayalam feature film. He was aged four when he topped a painting competition where a 16-year-old emerged second. That led the organisers to fix the age bracket for this online event.
The event saw 48,397 registrations from 133 countries during the period. Of the 38,995 paintings that vied for prizes, 6,542 were from abroad. Among the rest from India, 5,713 paintings were from Kerala. In all, 55 people have become eligible for the tour packages. They would be given a reception at the Kannur Airport upstate, taken for the travel and given away the prizes at the capital city of Thiruvananthapuram.