an integral part of our intangible heritage  which bears an essence of folk & traditional media

Lakshmipat Singhania Academy organised an art workshop as well as art mela from 19th to 23rd December, 2017. It was an extension of our Cyber Fair project collaboration with SPICMACAY. It was organised for our holistic development and to make us imbibe a sense of creativity and love for heritage in us. There were workshops on many traditional handicrafts arranged.I enjoyed Patachitra the most. It not only taught us the colourful heritage and culture of Bengal but also taught us to fill colours in our lives. We were told how nature could be used to make colours. Many organic and pure colours were made and we painted on designs using them. I along with my classmates made Patachitra on blank greetings cards during our Art classes. These cards later we distributed to the traffic policemen near our school to say “Thank You” to them. It was a memorable experience for me as I am fond of art.

It was a memorable experience for me as I am fond of art.

My name is Medha Kanoria. I’d like to share my experience about the Art workshop and Mela held in school. It was an initiative by SPICMACAY and an extension of our Cyber Fair project. It was held from 19th December to 23rd December in Lakshmipat Singhania Academy. Artisans from different villages had come to teach us different kind of arts like Patachitra, Shola Art, seeds and beads  jewellery making, wood carving and Kaalighat paintings. They came to tell us about the Indian heritage and teach us the Indian traditions. The artisans who taught us Patachitra were Monimala Chitrakar and Moloy Chitrakar. It is an art which is being used by artisans since time immemorial. They told us about how they make the painting and the paints. The artisans made white paint from coconut kernel, green from a wild leaf and black from the coal all found in and around their village. They also obtained grey colour from the ashes of paper. They said they used a piece of cloth at the back of the paper or canvas so that the paintings could be preserved as they were done in natural paints. They told us the stories of Krishna and Radha by singing a song. We also made a dictionary of words used in this art in local language and translated  it into English. It was a great experience having them over and we learnt a lot about our Indian Heritage. I wish to attend more of such workshops.

learnt a lot about our Indian Heritage

The art workshop followed by a mela was conducted by Lakshmipat Singhania Academy from 19th December to 23rd December. It was in continuation of our Cyber Fair project and an initiative by SPICMACAY. It was an initiative taken by the school to bring students closer to their heritage. We had artisans who has mastery in the fields of patachitra, seed and bead jewellery making, shola craft, wood carving , clay art come to our school to teach us the different forms of art. It was a five day workshop. I attended the workshop of patachitra. Patachitra is a form of scroll painting based in the Indian states of Odisha & Bengal. The colours used for patachitra was all organic and obtained from nature. The white colour was obtained from coconut kernel, while green colour was obtained by churning leaves found in their village. Orange colour was obtained from the seeds of a fruit. Each patachitra painting had a story associated with it. The artisans narrated the story in the form of a song. It depicted the life of Lord Krishna and Radha where Radha was waiting under the kadamba tree for Lord Krishna. We not only made paintings but also made some greeting cards. The Guides of class 9 and 10 distributed pouches that contained daily use toiletries to the artisans. It was an amazing experience and I was obliged to have experienced such an Art mela.

It was an amazing experience

Last class our art teacher taught us an art - Patachita which was so different from all the styles of drawing we have learnt so far. We had to make greetings cards on which we drew a portrait of Goddess Saraswati with a swan  on her side. I really enjoyed the art - maybe because this was one thing which I hadn’t tried and I was really eager to try. I was really surprised when I finished colouring it because it was looking incredibly beautiful and I hadn’t thought that I could do something so good without having any knowledge about it and without trying it previously. It was a really nice experience to try such a unique art form. I really like this art and I will surely try to do more of such interesting, unique indian art forms.

Unique indian art forms.

Under Cyber Fair project with support from SPICMACAY, we had a five day workshop to imbibe the values of our old heritage.  Various kinds of other activities were being held but I attended the patachitra one. Patachitra is the art of painting scriptures using natural colours (cloth was used to be stuck behind the paintings in order to conserve it for years). The experts who taught us the art of painting were namely Monimala Chitrakar & Moloy Chitrakar. They had performed these crafts in Boston and various other places teaching the essence of the Indian  tradition. They made the colours with the help of leaves (for green), coconut (for white) etc. It was a wonderful time learning from them. I wish I could spend some more time with them learning new art forms and crafts.

essence of the Indian tradition