Art Kendra Presents Saumyaa Mehra's Solo Exhibtion of Paintings & Photography 'Promises Made Today' at Alliance Française de Delhi

Art Kendra 

Presents 

Saumyaa Mehra's

Solo Exhibtion of Paintings & Photographs

'Promises Made Today'

Curated by Dr Maurice Ryder
at
Alliance Française de Delhi
Chief Guest, Mr Vineet Joshi, IAS, Chairman CBSE

14 year old  Saumyaa at  the Art Kendra Studio.

Saumyaa intends to showcase her first solo exhibition of paintings and photographs, Curated by Dr Maurice Ryder, after a year long teaching period by him, through a regular and planned syllabus in the formal scope of fine art applications at his visual art center, Art Kendra, in Noida.

About a year ago, I asked Saumyaa to give a speech at an art exhibition. She had already done artworks and lessons with me. At the exhibition she said, “I wish we could turn the clock back and I could get an opportunity at the age of 5 or 6 to paint… and have the fortune of launching myself under Dr Ryder’s tutelage.” Her determined and defiant speech told me she was serious about going further into Art.

It was Mrs Meeta Mehra, her far sighted mother telling me, “You are the kind of person I was looking for to guide Saumyaa…” Thus began Saumyaa’s journey with me into the formal art world.

Saumyaa was signing her didactic paintings for the Curator’s File, in our studio, just the other day when she exclaimed, “I didn’t realize I had done so much practice work.” She has contributed over 41 didactic paintings to the File. 

From age four, the child Saumyaa, had shown a keen interest in scribbling, drawing and painting as all children of this age do.

At the end of her 13^th year, it was realized that she should embark upon a very formal training in the Fine Arts. This was made possible at Art Kendra where international teaching methods are followed. She developed skills in master classes in sketching and painting in all the mediums including mixed media. Dr Maurice Ryder, Director of Studies, Art Kendra, Noida, and Ms Manisha Sah the Senior Visual Art Teacher, guided her through sessions in Art Appreciations and she also completed a Foundation Course in Photography –  The Taking Technique.

At her forthcoming solo exhibition she plans to exhibit paintings in all the mediums, and showcase an array of photographs in multiple genres, demonstrating her proficiency with the camera too.

The opening day will be graced by the Chief Guest, Mr Vineet Joshi, Chairman, CBSE.


To see more pictures of Saumyaa at Art Kendra Facebook Page click on the link below :- https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.694033477308357.1073741829.190129934365383&type=1

©Photographs & Text : Maurice Ryder. Not to be reproduced or captioned.

 

‘Ahaana at 5’ : AHAANA MAKKAR the Child Artist

ART KENDRA 

Presents a Solo Show by

AHAANA MAKKAR 

 Child Artist

‘Ahaana at 5’
Curated by Maurice Ryder

at 
AIFACS 

 1 Rafi Marg, New Delhi – 100 001  

On view from 2^nd to 7^th April, 2013

Ahaana Makkar at Studio, Art Kendra

ABOUT THE CHILD ARTIST

The exhibition titled ‘Ahaana at 5’ showcases the paintings that Ahaana, a child artist, did at the tender age of FIVE between April 2012 and March 2013.

Thus, at this remarkably young age of 5 years, Ahaana became conversant with six mediums: graphite, charcoal, pastels, classic watercolour, gouache and acrylics on supports of paper and canvas.

The show is about how far a child can go with a teacher’s careful nurturing of the skills required in Fine Art, keeping in mind age, attention span and the subject matter from the child’s point of view. Rounded off it emphasizes education through art. “If children are to participate fully in their culture, they must master this symbolic system,” says Maurice Ryder, Curator of the exhibition.

Ahaana’s parents describe their 5 year old daughter as cheerful and pleasant and one who loves to draw and paint all the time.

Ahaana is very observant and focused in her attitude towards Art. She is a quick learner and her attention span is now surprisingly good for a child of such a tender age. She can sit for hours on a painting, and is only satisfied when she has completed it to her satisfaction. She is very confident of herself and painting always makes her happy.

Ahaana’s love for Art started showing when she was only a year old; she would only scribble then (the scribbling period).  Besides Art, Ahaana loves to solve jigsaw puzzles among the other things that any five year old would enjoy doing. She is very gregarious. From attempting formal scales on the keyboard to being the youngest on the tennis court, Ahaana is a winner.

Ahaana is a student at Step by Step School in Noida. She is in the kindergarten.

Ahaana was grounded into a planned approach to drawing & painting at ART KENDRA, Noida. Here she was made aware of fundamentals like ‘Fill the frame’, and, ‘Wait till the paint is dry’ etc. Her mentors and teachers are satisfied with her results which have culminated in a thrust to put up this exhibition of her works. In no way was her individuality or originality sacrificed for formal dogmas. From the very beginning Ahaana was nurtured in ‘Art’ to bring out the best of her talent. She can sit through 1½hr sessions enjoying every moment of it, and producing works of her own invention, always determined to explore line, colour and form her own way.

Ahaana's Action Painting in progress at Art Kendra

 ABOUT THIS UNIQUE ART SHOW

This exhibition demonstrates how ‘Art’ can be used in developing a child’s personality, cure phobias, eliminate shyness and other undesirable traits like tantrums, stubbornness, poor attention span etc, and is directly connected to Art Therapy.

In fact, the fundamental tenets of art therapy involve communication, control resolution of emotional conflicts through art making (American Art Therapy Association 1996).  As one therapist commented, ‘Like dreams they (children’s drawings) are an expression of their unconscious mind, something which is not normally accessible’. Ahaana’s paintings, for one, helped her overcome shyness, putting her on the theater stage and making her healthily gregarious. The exhibition ‘Ahaana at 5’ represents a rare blend of child artistic talent and the psychological understanding of the pictorial world of the child. A must visit for parents and teachers interested in children’s future in the visual arts and education through art.

The nearly week long exhibition, 2^nd  to 7^th April, also includes talks on children and their art, art therapy and live demonstration  by Ahaana along with videos of her ‘work in progress’.

Artist : Ahaana Makkar (Child Artist)
Title: Boats on a Lake

Medium: Mixed Media on Paper

Size: 15 x 21.5 inches

The exhibits speak for themselves and one can look forward to showcasing her works at the prestigious AIFACS gallery (All India Fine Arts & Crafts Society)  as an example of a ‘Child and her Art’, and that too a Solo.  

© Copyright Photos &Text Maurice Ryder

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LETS PAINT HIS FACE BLACK

I had given much thought to this painting on greed, power, scams, bribery and corruption, well before Independence Day, and much before Anna Hazare took centre stage. In fact, I put the idea to face the criticism of friends and people I met. I was supported by some like Rasik Sahani, B. Chandrashekhar IAS, Neeraj & Renu Singhal,Tamanna, Manisha and many others. Planning and research went on for days. Gandhi ji’s sketch was practiced and changed many times.

LET’S PAINT HIS FACE BLACK

The 4 X 3’ acrylic alla prima on canvas, ‘Lets Paint His Face Black’ is, at first glance, meant to stun the senses. Shock is my first aim in doing a title like this with the face of the Mahatma spread large on the support.

Who dare to paint his face black?!

Dare? We have dared, we the People – or at least so many of us – with our shameless acts of greed, power, scams, bribery and corruption.

Yes, it is only when we continue to read the lines at the bottom left hand corner, that our tempers are ready to cool, hang down our heads in shame and accept the fact that we have blackened his face with our selfishness, greed and pure disregard for the future of the Nation.

The backdrop of the picture is the national colours – the backdrop of our national pride or whatever is left of it! With such a backdrop there is no negative space available in the picture!

Gandhi ji is in caricature – the joke we have made out of him.

The style is graffiti; the writing on the wall!

The three demonic faces are not the masks we wear; rather, our own faces are the masks of the degraded souls underneath. Our smiles and our guiles only a cover up; masks for the monsters of corruption we have become and that we are!

Hints of Khadi, the white patches below the faces and a hardly noticeable gandhi-topee add to how we show ourselves as whited sepulchres to people and the public.

The allegory is not aimed at any particular political party, group or persons. It’s just ‘We the People…’!

The artist in all humility accepts his share in the responsibility of owning up to all the chaos around us.

The bottom line is, “Lets NOT paint his face black.”

The Day Christ Died

THE DAY CHRIST DIED

Artist: Maurice Ryder

Media: Acrylic on Canvas

Size: 4.9 X 3.10 ft

Dated: Good Friday, 6^th April, 2007

(Completed after a series of studies between 2001 & 2007.)

Historically and Geographically correct

Thorn bushes that grew on the walls of Jerusalem.

(Detail from The Day Christ Died)

The centerpiece of the painting is an outline map of Old Jerusalem in the time of Jesus Christ. The outline of the city-wall is interspaced with ‘thorns’; wild thorn bushes that grew on the city wall. A crown, made of these thorns, was crushed onto Jesus’ head by his tormentors, signifying, in mockery, that he was a King.

Cardinal North point of the compass.

(Detail from The Day Christ Died)

The yellow lines are the points of the compass, true North, South, East and West. The cardinal North is marked with a capital ‘N’.

Landmarks on “The Day Christ Died”.

Seen are: Pilate’s Fort Antonio, Herod’s Palace, Caiaphas’s house with the cock-bird, Last Supper table, the Palm Sunday procession, Solomon’s Temple, Gethsemane and the Mt. of Olives, The Way of the Cross or the Fourteen Stations of the Cross, Golgotha, The Cross, The Pieta, the Burial Tomb.

Highlighting the Details

Then the multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out, saying:

“Hosanna to the son of David!

Hosanna in the highest!”

Matthew 21: 9

(Detail from The Day Christ Died)

To mark the beginning of Passion Week, a reminder of Christ’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, a crowd bearing palm branches comes down the center and turns to our left.

The Last Supper

(Detail from The Day Christ Died)

A little below is the Last Supper. All seated at the table have halos except for the standing figure, Judas, who is leaving for the betrayal.

The Perfect Figure: A square representing Jesus Christ.

(Detail from The Day Christ Died)

Jesus is represented by the white square at Gethsemane near the Mt. of Olives. The red drops of blood mark the place where Christ prayed while his disciples slept.

The black “U” embracing the white square represents Judas; his arms around the Lord as he betrays Him with a kiss.

Geometrically the Square is the Perfect Figure; all sides equal, all angles ‘right’. It is used here to represent Jesus’ perfectness.

Cock-bird at the High Priest Caiaphas’ house.

(Detail from The Day Christ Died)

Jesus is arrested here and taken in the dead of night by the path shown, through the South Gate, to the High Priest’s house. Note the Cock which crows when Peter denies Christ for the third time.

Roman Governor Pontius Pilate’s house.

(Detail from The Day Christ Died)

From thence He is taken to Pilate who sends Him to King Herod.

King Herod’s house.

(Detail from The Day Christ Died)

After the mocking, Herod returns Jesus to Pilate on the paths shown.

The Sentence is pronounced, Jesus is given his cross, and the ‘Way of the Cross’ begins.

The Stations of the Cross or The Way of the Cross.

(Detail from The Day Christ Died)

The 14 stations are marked with vertical, upright, straight lines, which signify an upright Christ falsely condemned, going to his execution.

Golgotha: the Place of a Skull.

(Detail from The Day Christ Died)

Golgotha is marked with a skull at the foot of the Cross.

The Cross, Pieta & the Tomb Stone

(Detail from The Day Christ Died)

The Cross is clear with a white beam of light ascending on it, head to foot, from Heaven.

The last two stations of the cross: Pieta & The tomb stone.

(Detail from The Day Christ Died)

Another two ‘stations’ and Jesus is laid to rest behind the huge round stone which will be rolled away on Easter morning!

Temple curtain rent in two.

(Detail from The Day Christ Died)

The ‘streaks’ across the Temple denote that the curtain in the temple was rent in two.

Symbolic representation of the angry crowd.

(Detail from The Day Christ Died)

Finally, the red rectangles in the North East and South West corners represent an angry crowed (the worm like strokes) which cried “Crucify Him”.

If we ‘zoom’ out of the picture the red areas would eventually envelop the whole scene—This part of the painting signifies Christ crucified today where we all join in to crucify Him again!

Amen.

Artist with the Bishop of Delhi and the Parish Priest.

Art in Education

(Village school Assembly in Kumaon Hills, India.)


Much has been said about ‘Education and the Child’ from Rousseau’s Emile to the present day. It is slowly emerging that Art in the curriculum should be the cornerstone of modern education. Herbert Reid and Devi Prasad respectively, have expounded this in their writings in ‘Education through Art’, and, ‘Art: the basis of Education.’


Picasso said the same thing in different ways: “It took me a life time to paint like a child,” and more directly, “All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.”


Paramjeet says she learns art from her little son, and learns more about her son through his art!
“He painted a tree trunk blue,” she said. “I asked him why?”
“It was raining,” he explained. “Rain water was coming down the tree trunk – it was very wet – water is blue – so I painted the trunk blue.”
Paramjeet studies at Art Kendra.



This busy child is not the slave to realism. She needs four eyes, two to keep track of brushing her hair and two to keep track of simultaneous teeth brushing. What could be more expressive! This Picasso-like black crayon self-portrait, 12 x 18 inches is by a 6 year old girl.
(Drawing courtesy of Frank Wachowiak & Ted Ramsay.)


“In Art, every generation must start again afresh.” Maurice De Vlaminck (1876 - 1968).