Quarantine Diaries - Drawing Class

 This is a memoir I had posted in Facebook on April 29, 2020. It was during the pandemic lockdown.

Someone said that the quarantine period is a good time for inward travelling and so I did..... into myself and the loft shelves. Dug out quite a few pictures and memories. Penning my memoirs - Quarantine Diaries.

DRAWING CLASS

   An exciting part of my summer holidays was the Art lessons I took from Artist Vadivel (Vadivel Sir). The month long course happened for 2 hours each morning in the terrace of his home, it was a charming ambience..... lots of daylight, thatched roof for shade, coconut and neem trees for cool breeze, a kind teacher and his warm family.

      Straw mats were spread on the floor and students of all ages sat together in clusters. The smaller children preferred to get distracted by the bees, fruits and birds on the trees; some used to chit chat by the water pot and almost all badgered SIR with useless queries. He enjoyed it all. Us teenagers took the classes seriously, we were allowed to work on anything we fancied...... photographs and paintings from magazines or still models set up by Sir with random objects. No prior instructions were given, we could use any medium for our work and Sir would guide us along the way, bettering our personal style (there were no art blogs/videos for us to follow and learn).

To me.... 'painting' was a messy business, the many number of brushes, a palette, a cup of water that can topple any moment etc. Graphite and color pencils were dry and hassle free, I was the only one to use them, others thought it was something that only smaller children use; until I made ' THE CLOWN'

     Chanced upon him while flipping through the pages of an art magazine, he was the work of another artist originally made with oil pastels. All of 16 then, I was thrilled to replicate him in color pencils which seemed quite challenging. It took a good 11 days of absolute devotion to finish this ( we never spent more than 3 days on a piece, the course was only for a month). Meticulous attention was paid to details. The orange hair has as many strokes of sap green, crimson red, burnt sienna and dark brown as it has orange - for texture. The bushy eyebrows have dark blue and gray to accentuate the black. There had to be a hint of the real shape of his lips and eye brows beneath his make up, the lips smiling and eyes melancholic.

 Except for a mistake in the eyes, I was glad I could achieve what I wanted. My 'art teacher' was mighty pleased.

        I had the clown framed and hung him in our drawing room; recieved appreciation. But, over time, he exuded a lot of sorrow into the room, such was his presence. As memorable and special as he was...... he had to go. He was carefully placed in the loft and visited once in a while.

    This time, I happened to notice the irony that, for all the attention, effort and devotion I endowed (whether 11 days  or 10 years) the men I chose (both rendered and real), had just sadness to give in return. Hmm...... one can give only what one has got..... fair enough.

      It is wise to take notes on life lessons and focus on painting a happier picture now. But I wonder, after all.... did I manage to please my 'Karmic teacher'?! I hope I have.

                   Om Sham Shanaischaraya 🙏🏾

#quarantinediaries