The craze for paintings and fine arts is on the rise in Chitwan and its neighbouring districts. The audiences have grown more discerning and art exhibitions too are increasing in number each year.

In the last two months, the region saw two workshops which featured a host of artists from around the country and abroad. In April this year, the first ever International Nature Art Festival took place in Amarapuri in Nawalparasi, which featured about two dozen artists from Nepal and abroad. “Fine art is garnering more attention than ever,” says Bhim Prasad Sharma, chair of the Kalawati Art Council, in Gaindakot. “Schools have started including fine arts in their curriculum and the private sectors have been helping to promote it.” Sharma, who is also an artist, likes to create artworks based on nature and owns an art gallery at his home.

“If we can enable a one-house-one-painting scheme, it would help promote painting and would also help artists financially,” he says.

Painter D Baral has been operating the Creative Art Gallery in Sauraha for six years. “Although the number of visitors is on the rise, those who want to buy artworks are few and far between. Most buyers are still visiting tourists.”

“Arts, if given the importance it deserves,” he says, “can also contribute to the tourism sector of the region.” Adding that while interest in art and its scope has been on the rise over the last decade, it still pales in comparison to Kathmandu. But for now, according to Baral, Chitwan-based artists have taken heart in the fact that the district is emerging as a new artistic hotspot.