Winners of children's online painting competition announced

Kerala Tourism Minister Kadakampally Surendran Tuesday announced the winners ofthe international children's online painting competition in memory of prodigious child artist Edmund Clint.

Surendran announced a list of 110 winners out of which 15 got selected for tour packages with family.

Parth Joshi, (12) of Vadodara in Gujarat bagged the first prize, a press release issued by the department said.

"He, along with four other top winners from India, become eligible for a five-night Kerala travel accompanied by two members of the family," the release quoted the minister as saying.

The release said the jury went through close to 39,000 works it received from 4-16 age group across as many as 96 countries.

 

Nafisa Tabassum Authay (14) of Bangladesh won the second prize.

"She, along with nine other children from abroad who won the top prizes, will be eligible for a five-night Kerala tour with two members from the family," the release said.

Six-year-old Aaradhya P G fetched the third prize 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.

Born to M T Joseph, who died earlier this year, and Chinnamma Joseph, the boys life and works went on to earn increasing global acclaim.

Clints 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.