radhica.sookraj@guardian.co.tt
Twelve-year-old Ariella Roopnarine went through the most unimaginable pain when she suddenly lost her father, Dr Richard Roopnarine, three years ago after he had a failed surgical operation.
However, as she deals with the torment of losing her dad, the former student of Sevilla Private Primary School is channelling her grief to create extraordinary artwork, some of which is now being sold abroad.
Already having won several competitions, including the top prize from the T&T Naturalist Club when she was just seven, Roopnarine is well on her way to stardom, as she teaches herself new art techniques using a range of mediums and Youtube videos.
In an interview with Guardian Media, Roopnarine shared several of her masterpieces at her Couva home. One of them was a silhouette painting of her father and herself walking amidst the beauty of the galaxy.
“This is me and my dad. The galaxy is such a beautiful place and this is where I think he is,” she whispered.
Although she dreams of becoming a medical doctor just like her father, Roopnarine says she will not give up her passion for art.
“I love art because it relaxes me and helps me to express how I feel at the moment,” she said quietly as she sketched flowers on a vase speedily within minutes.
Currently, her passion is pottery design and the young artist said it is gratifying to create pictures from her mind.
“There are so many designs I can do on this pot. I see what I want to do and then when I do it, it would look really nice,” she said.
Being a deep thinker and emotionally sensitive to others, Roopnarine prefers to spend her time sketching, painting and designing.
Sometimes she draws happy pictures of her two sisters. Other times, her artwork is sombre and abstract.
Having written the Secondary Entrance Assessment examinations a few days ago, Roopnarine hopes to pass for her first-choice school—Naparima Girls’ High School.
Her mother Sarita Chankadyal said Roopnarine’s artwork is a gift.
“She has been drawing since she was four years old. I know that art helped her cope because instead of having to talk about how she felt all the time, you can feel her mood in her paintings.”
She added, “I have a friend who is also an artist and he can interpret what she is trying to say with her artwork. He tells me that he feels the pain in her pieces and sometimes she feels a mood of peace in her creations.”
Sarita said getting her daughter art supplies was challenging during COVID.
“With the closure of art shops, we have not been able to buy our art supplies like we normally do so I have started ordering on Amazon and using a skybox to ship it,” she said.
Sarita believes others can use art and writing to deal with the pain of grief.
“It’s been a rough time for all of us, very hard but I am so grateful that Ariella has found something that takes her pain and expresses it into an actual medium,” she said hugging her daughter.
And although life may give children hard knocks, Sarita had these words of advice for others facing similar pain.
“For all those who are out there feeling this and suffering this many families have lost loved ones due to COVID my advice is to get a journal and start writing and after writing an entry over and over, you will see how far you’ve come,” she said.
A client from Scotland who saw Sarita’s pieces of Facebook have expressed an interest in purchasing.
Sarita said another friend from the United States has also expressed an interest in purchasing some of her artwork. Sarita said Roopnarine can create pictures in just a few hours and can look at anything on television and recreate it on paper.
Anyone interested in seeing Roopnarine’s work can email her mother at sarichankadyal@live.com.