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Journalism of Courage
Early this month, Te Aroha turned into an artists’ workshop for five days, as this boutique resort in Dhanachuli, Uttarakhand, became the creative pivot for six artists from Delhi and NCR region. Antique furniture, breathtaking views of the Himalayas and the green blanket of forests were reason enough to paint every day in this village, few miles away from Mukteshwar.
Ritu Kamath drew the sculpted face of a villager, she met during a trek to an abandoned village nearby, and later painted a woman surrounded by leaves in varying shapes and hues in another canvas. Niladri Paul brought alive the freshness of flowers on his canvas, while cartoonist Anil Nakhasi drew caricatures of other artists and resort staff.
Cartoonist Nakhasi, 40, famous for his caricatures, of APJ Abdul Kalam, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Mahesh Bhatt and Shyam Benegal, says, “This retreat depicts how creativity can go hand in hand with nature. In a city like Delhi, where we are closed within the four walls of a house, we are in conflict as our work does not go well with the surrounding. In a place like this, where there is natural beauty, you can go wild as you sit amid nature.” Perhaps, this is why he chose to paint and sketch the vastness of the landscape around him, inhabited by his newly found protagonist, nature, and in the company of new friends.
For each of the artists, this retreat was a quick getaway from everyday activities, for some it was a reaffirmation of their philosophy, while for others it was a departure from the familiar. One such was Paul, who has a studio in Noida. “A studio is a personal space and there is a fixed thought process. In this retreat, we are interacting with other artists, exchanging a lot of energy, focusing on creative stimulation and the work is more interactive here,” says the 50-year-old. He chose to paint the wilderness and the smell of nature in the form of purple and yellow flowers, moving miles away from his trademark paintings of human figures. His canvas is peopled with those who depict Navarasa or the nine emotions fundamental to dance, theatre, play and poetry, drenched in a burst of rainbow colours.
