Sid the artist

I’m Susmitha Gadiyar, mother of Siddharth who is a young man of 20 who has Autism, severe learning difficulty, speech and language impairment, Epilepsy, ADHD, PDD and challenging behaviours.

Siddharth (Sid) has always had a creative streak and knack for music and sports.

Sid has always liked to draw and colour on paper, books and magnetic doodle board ever since he was in nursery but his interest in painting started about 4-5 years ago.

We couldn’t find any studio space in Brighton that could meet Sid’s high care needs and that lead us to look outside of Brighton. This is how we discovered Project artworks (PAW) in Hastings.

This interest has flourished and grown from strength to strength at PAW over the last year, where he makes big, bold, vibrant and beautiful pieces of work that we never realised he was capable of. This is highly therapeutic for Sid in his otherwise chaotic and extremely challenging world of Autism.

PAW is an amazing place that provides Sid with a bespoke service and an environment to suit and meet his very high care needs and hence he is very happy, calm and focused during his time there. It is indeed a very special and happy space for Sid.

In one piece by Sid, which is my personal favourite and more importantly one of the most touching moments of my life, he wrote "Siddharth love mummy" all over the painting.  It was the first time ever that he has conveyed that message to me in words and using art as a medium. I post all of Sid’s beautiful art work on his Facebook art page. He is currently having his first solo art exhibition!

The paintings Sid makes are between 6-12 feet long and 6-12 feet wide. He does these in 2 hours straight without any prompts or breaks and is totally self-taught! Are you or children into painting, if so how are you finding it?