21-year-old autistic artist uses paints for expression

MUMBAI: A shock of colour greets all those who enter Orko Roy’s exhibition. Roosters in bright pastels strut against blue backdrops, a bulldog with kind eyes waits demurely in front of a vivid acrylic background.
“My favourite is the fish,” says the 21-year-old autistic artist, pointing at a flash of greens, oranges and yellows painted in watercolours in an aquarium, adding, “I prefer bright colours.”
Orko’s second Mumbai exhibition, shared once again with his father Kaushik Roy, records the latest achievements of this sharp-eyed artist.At the age of ten, he could not grip a pencil or write a sentence. Now, at 21, he is a prolific artist studying at the Birla Art Academy and developing his signature style.
“It’s nice because Orko has always been at special schools with special children,” his mother, Nina, says. “But at the academy, he sits with 25 to 30 ‘normal’ people and they draw and paint together. We’ve asked the school not to interfere though — he has his own natural line.”
When asked to draw a rooster, he picked up a piece of chalk and within two minutes a rooster was brought to life. No deviant lines, never the need for an eraser.
His father Kaushik points out that though Orko’s skills of observation are impeccable, he did make one mistake. “In his rendition of a horse, he’s given it a human eye.” There is such compassion in Orko’s work that it is unclear if that was intentional. His bulldog has kindness in its eyes, and couldn’t be achieved without humanity and love.