Haiga Showcase:
Pravat Kumar Padhy & Aditri Mishra

Commentary by Ron C. Moss, Haiga Editor

We all seek that beginner’s or child-like mind, especially when we create, and this father-granddaughter team has found it. I was enchanted by this collaboration from the first moment I viewed their haiga.

I love the elephant family in watchful. The colours and shapes have been handled with such joy, we can only smile looking at them. The haiku beautifully captures the humour and love of wondrous things. What can be more magical than making a rainbow?

stepping out draws us into a world full of colour—the big, bright yellow bird blasts off in a fun-filled scene, dominating trees and grasses of green. The art and haiku balance well, and the placement and rendering of all the elements are excellent.

The wooly sheep in a gentle pause are drawn in a free-flowing way, and each one has its own character. The association of the clouds and the fluffy sheep all work together with the haiku—as the poet suggests, we could all float away in such a lovely scene.

Every time I look at Friendship Day I see different things. The artist has a achieved a lovely sense of space, with many fine points of detail. Once again, the poet grandfather has merged into his granddaughter’s world, and we are the richer for it. May there be many Friendship Days filled with such colour and obvious joy.

Pravat Explains in His Own Words

Charles Crook [academic researcher at the University of Nottingham in England] opines that “it is widely recognized that the content of children’s drawings may provide insight into their feelings and thoughts about the world.” Drawing and artwork reveal a child’s imagination, logical thinking, and creative pursuits. Children express their observations and feelings emanating from the cleanest mind and sketch them with joy and elation.

I coin the haiku with the warm touch of childhood fun and fondness. If you paint a full moon, let the haiku be the passionate wave bridging the sublime relationship. This is the beauty of the art of haiga.

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About the Poet and Artist

Pravat Kumar Padhy is a mainstream poet and writer of Japanese short forms of poetry. His haiga have been published in Haigaonline, DailyHaiga, World Haiku Association, Under the Basho, NHK World, and Cattails, among others, and he received an honorable mention in the Seventh Setouchi-Matsuyama International Photo-Haiku Contest. He is a panel judge for The Haiku Foundation’s 2022 Touchstone Awards for Individual Poems and is on the editorial board of Under the Basho.

Aditri Mishra, the granddaughter of Pravat Kumar Padhy, is a first-grade student who loves dancing and has received awards for her mathematical skills. One of her paintings has been featured in DailyHaiga, part of another collaboration with her grandfather.