Veetasha Jhummun: The making of an artist

The world of Veetasha is full of colours. A young and talented painter, Veetasha makes us discover her paintings. Till now, her work comprises than 200 items that include paintings and drawings, sculptures and gravures. 

25-year old Veetasha is a 3rd year student at the MGI. She is currently specialising in sculpture. Since childhood, she has had a passion for scribbling. As soon as she was free from schoolwork, she always found time to do some small sketches of trees and landscapes. She was amazed by mehendi designs. “In Form 3, one of my teachers persuaded me to take Arts as a subject in order to turn my hobby into a passion. This was where things started to turn more serious and I was often encouraged and praised by many teachers for creating lovable landscapes. I love watching waves or movement of clouds as if they are always creating some silhouettes; I equally love leaves, landscapes, texture of leaves and tones of branches,” she shares.

Veetasha does a wide variety of paintings. “Arts, in general, consists of several elements, such as literature, music, theatre, dance, culinary arts, photography, visual arts etc. I am interested instead in ‘l’art plastiques’ which is a combination of artistic activities such as drawing, painting, engraving and sculpture. Being a 3rd year student, I am currently doing my specialisation in sculpture. I do sculpture with cement, woods carving, plaster carving, fire glass, painting with oil pastel, water colour, acrylic colours and drawing with pencil, sepia, charcoal, graphite portraits.”

My inspirations…

It was her father’s dream to be an artist but due to his family’s financial situation, he did not have the chance to reach that level where he can realise his dreams. So Veetasha’s inspiration is her father. “I made his dreams become my ambitions, and I hope to make him very proud one day.  Moreover, I chose art, because art is different from other materials where it helps to build intelligence and creativity just as a small child is attracted by drawing and colour, rather than letters. I try to express my feelings through drawings by means of lines, emotions through shapes and colours.” 

She has already exhibited her paintings and been awarded for different painting competitions.  “I would like to do my Ph.D. in Fine Arts, and wish to exhibit among the Mauritian artists and I would like to propagate my experience of how art is beautiful to students by being a teacher.”