Last week I started feeling frantic as the sun felt hot and unbearable mid day, a signal of the excruciating heat to come that will stop all excursions for 5 months. As I looked for city walks, fares, or food tours and such found two things that I decided fit the bill: International Kalaa Mela organized by Lalit Kala Akadami and the Hunar Haat, a fare organized by the ministry of minority affairs to give platform to minority artisans. More about Hunar Haat later.
It was a fascinating experience, so many different materials, genres, techniques, and motivations. The most intersting conversation was with ….. Sen. I was commenting about the different techniques on display and how it might be educative to students and artists alike when she commented – Seeing all these techniques makes it difficult to find yours. You have to unlearn to find your voice. Unlearning is much more difficult than learning.’ That stopped me in my tracks in addition to her beautiful paintings capturing different moods of the sea. We had a long chat about capturing sea, my impressions of paintings about sea and sea related art while I lived in Providence-Boston area, and the reason why her blues pulled me in more than I had ever experienced before. I started looking at all the things I was seeing with a different eye after these conversation. Sometimes I complain that some of the classical vocalists favour gimmic over expression. I started seeing that in the paintings as well.
Couple other conversations with artists about how they decide to frame their piece was an education in itself. I wonder if these practicalities are formal part of an artist’s education or they aquire the sense over the years experimenting with colors, textures, shapes, and empty space.
Some experiences were wordless silent observation. Like this pair painting without any thought to the onlookers.
devayani tirthali 