Art Pitara Summer series Back
The division of Intangible Cultural Heritage & Happy Hands Foundation jointly organized a series of month long workshops, titled “Art Pitara” from 26th May- 25th June 2014 at Multipurpse Hall, INTACH.
Many traditional art and craft forms of India were taught by the Master craftsmen. The first workshop was Molela Tiles– making the name which is derived of the Rajsamand district of Rajasthan. “Molela” are terracotta tiles depicting everyday life and idols and the art has been transmitted to another. This art form is usually practiced by the Bhils and Mina tribes of Rajasthan. The artist Shri Rajendra Kumar and his assistant Kailash lal worked individually with each participant to make a series of tiles from scratch and came 10 days later to five and bake these in a make-shif kiln.
The second workshop was of Pithora painting of Gujarat which is ritualistic tradition displaying tribal beliefs and customs, (traditionally done on walls) in the regions of Gujarat and Chhattisgarh. Practiced by the tribes of Rathwa Bhils and Nayak this art form is used to celebrate auspious occasion or to call upon the Pithora Baba to solve problems like disease or drought.
During the workshop an artist Sh. Desing Bhai explained the story of Baba Pithora to contextualize the ideas behind this style of Painting.
The third workshop was of Calligraphy, conducted by Sh. Zubair Hussain. During the sessions the participants were taught to write mainly the English alphabets. They were also taught to use the calligraphy ink pens and to draw other designs.
Kavad Box making was another very popular workshop of the Art Pitara series. Kavad is a small wooden box with multiple folding doors, each of which is painted in folk style usually telling mythological stories. Once the artist Shri Dwarka Prasad, a National Awardee from Rajasthan, had explained the traditional motifs and figures, the participants were encouraged to conceive and draw an original story. This resulted in some very interesting modern adaptations to an age-old story telling form.
The workshop Leather Puppets Making was conducted under the supervision of Shri. Gunduraju from Karnataka, a National Awardee. The participants worked on traditionally used goat skin to make beautiful shadow puppets.
The workshop on Soara Art of Orissa was supervised by Ms Sebati Swain, an accomplished artist of Soara tribal art. This art form on Tussar silk showcases the daily lives of the Soara tribe.
The seventh workshop on Gond Tribal art of Madhya Pradesh which is famous for its wildlife depiction in vibrant colours, was taught by Shri Dilip Shyam, a State Awardee from Madhya Pradesh. The participants were first taught the basic forms, and motifs and familiarized with the colour palate before they could go on to make a painting.
The Mask Making workshop was conducted by Shri. M. Madhu, State Awardee from Andhra Pradesh. The uniqueness of these Cheriyal masks is that they are made with Coconut shell; mask is that they made with the use of tamarind seed paste and saw dust powder to represent different characters.
This workshop series get a wonderful response from participants. Since it was open to all, school going children, college students, artist, home-makers, teachers and culture enthusiasts eagerly and were highly appreciate of this initiative.
