Art camps — an exciting space for artists

Watching artists commune with their creative impulse and its manifestation, be it dance, music or painting, is like entering a sacred space where few are invited in and when you do get lucky to get invited there is usually a serious reason to be in that space. Painters usually invite art writers, curators or potential buyers into their studios, dancers and musicians invite possible sponsors into their studios to share a new work. It is here that some might allow you to unravel a part of them to allow you a peek-a-boo into their fount of creativity.

Personally, I find the most fascinating way to get to know artists or artistes is at an art camp or a performance tour. While performance tours are usually high-strung zones with a lot performance anxiety, art camps are the exact opposite. They are usually chill zones even if artists are working seriously.

It is one of the most exciting spaces for it is very different from seeing them in their own studio. It is interesting how they are invariably different people and are capable of far more chilled out behavior during a camp.

An increasing number of art camp organisers have woken up to the fact there is little point in expecting high quality work at a camp, for many reasons.

For one, the specific tools that are needed by each artist many not be available or may be difficult to lug around. Two, the time may be too short for quality work to emanate. Thirdly, in case of an international camp, luggage allowances and security issues make it difficult to paint during the camp and lastly and most importantly, the sheer logistics of carrying around the canvases, paints and other nitty-gritty may not permit work to happen at the speed and quality required. Hence most camp organisers prefer to select the specific size works from the studios itself.

Just as well, for earlier organisers thought it was a way to get works cheaply by paying artists a nominal honorarium for works that were worth much more, by organising the camp and paying for stay etc.

Then artists got even smarter by making indifferent quality works that were of no commercial use. But now both artists and organisers have understood that this can work only if there is a win-win situation — artists for their part give a good work from their studio and organisers on their part give a better honorarium and take the artists for a camp to a more luxurious destination and not cut corners.

I have attended some very motivating and enjoyable camps in India as well as in Europe and I simply love the bonhomie of a camp. Artists show up in all kinds of attire that only they can dare to sport and get away with and it is like an extended party, especially in the evenings. The best camps are ones that ensure that artists get to see the museums and art galleries of the area and have a small part of the day dedicated to sharing videos of their works and talking about it. The other nice camps are where one can commune with nature and unwind, to go back renewed to create anew. As it is creating art is a lonely profession and proposition and when one can be in a chill zone with like-minded people, nothing can be better for the parched soul — as it is, artists can get along with few people thanks to their quirks.

A few of my fellow artists have just returned from an art camp at Mukteshwar in the mountains of Uttarakhand organised by the Gallery Pioneer. Looks like everyone had a good time and it was also productive from the point of view of work. I was also supposed to attend the camp but had to cancel at the last minute.

Praveen Upadhyaye, director of the gallery is himself a painter and understands the dynamics of the camps very well and the camp was organised accordingly.

“I wanted the artists to interact and share the nuances of their work with fellow artists — which is why we had decided to divide the camp into sessions and that module worked very well. A lot of nature walks and short treks were taken by the artists and many of them did a lot of photography and sketching. There was also the opportunity to experience local culture and cuisine. I also managed to find time to paint with friends, for secretly I have the heart of an artist,” he said.

Among the artists whose company I missed by not attending the camp included some of my favourite painters Shridhar Iyer, Vilas Kulkarni, Anita Kulkarni, Annu Naik, Niladri Paul, Shampa Das, Jagdish Dey, Kishore Roy among others. The loss is entirely mine.

Dr Alka Raghuvanshi is an art writer, curator and artist and can be contacted on alkaraghuvanshi@yahoo.com