Children's Art Class

As a part of the Made To Create project, we are offering art classes one day per week - Adult (2 registrants), Children (8 registered), and Youth (3 attending). Janis teaches all the classes, with national artist/helpers in the Children and Youth classes.




















On this day, after initial instruction and discussion in the Gallery, they went outside for a project involving water colors and painting a landscape.











Here are the projects following a short 30-minute outside excursion...

Art Appreciation Seminar - Contemporary

In Made To Create we are constantly piloting ideas for encouraging and unleashing creativity. Below are photos of the last of three, 2-hour, Saturday seminars - the first on the Renaissance era, the second on Impressionism, and this third on contemporary art, especially concentrating on the contemporary Indian artist M. F. Husain.

Each week, the name tags were done in a way reflecting the week's emphasis. This 3rd week, the challenge was to write our names using shapes. Chuck is describing his name tag below...


Janis enjoyed talking with the participants about various artists and the influences upon them and the influence they had on their cultures.











Also, each week we did at least one activity related to the era of art. This week all the participants did a "blind contour drawing." Here Janis is preparing to demonstrate....


Often her model was Vikhor, Curator for Reflection Art Gallery and an assistant in these seminars....










Attendance each week was about 10 - a perfect size for discussion and interaction. Below are some of the participants...










We asked Divya, a recent graduate of AayPeeJay Art School in Delhi, to present on M. F. Husain, a well known, contemporary, Indian artist. Divya gave an excellent presentation...

We concluded the last of this 3-part series with visits to a nearby studio of one of the participants and to Reflection Art Gallery

Creative Fridays

Every Friday afternoon, Reflection Art Gallery sponsors a "Creative Friday" for artists - professional and amateur - and for non-artists.

Each week a new activity is introduced. Some activities have been:

• block printing,
• painting on 1'x1' canvases,
• Mughal miniatures,
• sculpting with M-3 (an epoxy compound used in plumbing here, but proves to be a very interesting medium in place of clay and does not need firing),
• drawing with ink on photo paper, and
• last week's activity was illustrating.

The activities are a challenge to stretch comfort zones and interact with others interested in creativity.

Below are a few snapshots of last week's Creative Friday featuring illustrating...

Mussoorie

In between Art Classes and the Art Appreciation Seminar, we squeezed in a 5-day homestay with our friends in Mussoorie, September 5-9.

Mussoorie is in the foothills to the Himalayas and has some majestic views...when it's clear. It was sunny and clear for two of our five days...



But, even when it isn't clear and sunny, it is a beautiful place to be...









Mussoorie is built on the sides of very steep hills. Here is a view down one of the main streets in Landour Bazaar...
Here's a small idea of what happens with "traffic"...imagine what happens when two vehicles meet!

Janis & Chuck with one of our young friends, just barely 2-years old.









An added bonus in our home-stay (Chuck's language helper remarked after seeing him for the first time after the home-stay, saying, "Your Hindi has improved!") was getting to see Chris, Nicole, Esther and Ayden, who are staying in Mussoorie for 5-weeks while Chris & Nicole take classes at Landour Language Institute.


And, another added delight was getting to personally meet with Ruskin Bond, author of several books, one of which is The Blue Umbrella., from which we have been allowed to borrow the name in our Blue Umbrella Art Institute.

Art Appreciation Seminar

We have begun offering a 3-week series of 2-hour seminars at Bookwise, a local bookstore in the Shahpur Jat area of south Delhi. This has been a bit of an adventure as this is new ground for us. the first session, September 5, was on the Renaissance, featuring Leonardo da Vinci. The second session was last Saturday, September 12 and focused on Impressionism, featuring Claude Monet and Vincent van Gogh (though some who classify him as post-Impressionist). This coming Saturday, September 19, we will concentrate on contemporary Indian Artists and have asked an Indian, who is a recent graduate from an Art program in a local university, to be guest speaker.

Here's Aarti, one of the owners of the bookstore, with Janis. They are holding our introductory flyer:

Aarti is introducing Chuck to the participants:


Janis is describing an aspect of Impressionism in this photo









Janis is distributing some supplies to the participants:



So far, we've had about 10 participants in each session, and, given the size of the area we're working in, this is ideal:









Following a brief summary of the particular period of art that we're concentrating on, we have given them activities that include some aspect of that type of art. Here they are working on a "detail" of a Impressionist's art piece:

Art Classes

Janis began offering Art Lessons at Reflection Art Gallery in conjunction with Art For Change Foundation on Thursdays, starting 27th. She is offering a class for Adults (2 registrants), a class for Children (8 registered), and a class for Youth (3 participants). She teaches the first class by herself, the second a national artist and Chuck help, and the third another national artist helps. This is a 6-week session, and a good beginning for the concept of The Blue Umbrella Art Institute.

Here she is with the Youth class in the Gallery showroom as they were discussing Impressionists and taking part in a related art project....