Art adventures India: Three contemporary workshops

Three workshops with contemporary Rajasthani artists have shown us a different side of India and given us an outlet for our responses to our experiences.Akash delves inside to create fine line drawings that are humourous and poignant. They cover the undulating surfaces of white fibreglass forms that emphasise the ideas of journey, change and development. His deep brown eyes indicate his commitment to his serious ideas and enjoyment of the lighter sides of life, as he explains his work to us in his studio shared with three generations of artists. The art adventurers create their own journeys with pen and paper. Akash demonstrates his use of clay and fibreglass which gives me ideas for future projects back home. His digital works amaze and entice me.
The next workshop with Madan exposes us to extremely different paintings and prints and we are fortunate to get a sneak preview of his forthcoming exhibition. His small studio is home to a printing press, library and research of traditional village painting for a Phd. The research has influenced his work and he explained the development from expressive paint application to a strong use of delicate meditative symbols and a use of a variety of golds and silvers still based on nature. Insight into his process and meaning inspires us to create our own work with intermittent visits by two artist friends.
After showing and describing his work, the third artist, Surendra, paints alongside of us for the day with an intriguing use of stencils, stamps and masking tape. His influence of adding texture and dividing the canvas resulted in the best works by the group as they also incorporate thoughts from the other workshops (both traditional and contemporary as well as my own) along with photos and sketches.