Calligraphy Classes

On a whim, I wandered over to the International School of Hyderabad, located on this ICRISAT campus at Patancheru, India, to inquire if they'd be interested in having me guest-teach beginning calligraphy. They enthusiastically said "Yes!", and we set a schedule beginning the following week.

I liked that they not only displayed student art in the hallways,
but they also let them paint on columns, walls, etc.
No cold, sterile-feeling environment here - yahoo!

What a wonderful experience this has been! I taught beginning Italic to 4th, 5th, 7th, and 8th grade students. They were all great students, and we accomplished a lot in a short amount of time.

One of the 7th grade students - a wonderful group of young people!

Mr. Karan Singh, the middle school art instructor and an AMAZING artist - and me.

Unfortunately, they were taking a break soon, so I did not have as much time as I would ideally have liked with them, but that's life. I'm just happy for the opportunity that was given to me.

Gifts and Practice All in One!

Oliver's mama came home early, so I took advantage of their play time and lettered the names of the rest of the Douglas family members. Here are the kids' name pictures, done with a folded pen and indigo and sprectrum red watercolor:

...and one for my grandbaby, Oliver:

A Baby's Version of Murphy's Law

Yup, when I need the little guy, aka Oliver, to take a long nap, he barely takes only a 45-minute one. Now, if I hadn't wanted to get some art made, he'd have slept 2 hours! What a kiddo!

One of our new friends here, Gillian, from Australia, is celebrating her birthday today - so I wanted to quickly make her a card/gift. I barely got the paints mixed and was still just in warm-up mode, when Oliver woke, so unless I find time later today, her gift will be the warm-up picture. Oh, well, as a mother of three (one of whom she & her husband have nicknamed "Shiva - Lord of Destruction") she will understand.

Back to playing with Oliver...

Verse by Ibn al Arabi

From Sadia Dehlvi's column in THE HINDI, the newspaper of Hyderabad:

Her column was entitled, "Sufi's Light on Divinity", about the Sufi Mystic, Shaykh Muhyddin Ibn al Arabi, aka Shaykh ul Akbar. This verse by Ibn al Arabi (who died in 1240, remembered for his contribution in understanding Divine Love):

"Wonder, A garden among flames!

My heart has become capable of every form:

A pasture for gazelles & a convent for Christian monks,

And a temple for idols, and the pilgrim's Kaaba,

The tables of the Torah and the book of the Koran.

I believe in the religion of Love,

Whatever direction its caravans may take,

For love is my religion and my faith."

I will be emailing Sadia to get permission to reprint her article in its entirety - it really touched my heart. Naturally, I'm wanting to create some art around this verse.

Folded Pen Practice

I decided to get out my trusty folded brass pens, which I had neglected for too long. Sitting dejected on the shelf, they were begging to be played with, dipped in the watercolors and gouaches of palettes from past projects.

Out came the paper - various watercolor - hard and cold press and Canson Mi-Tientes. Music of the blues genre, mainly Bonnie Raitt, helped get the creative juices flowing. In the process, I remembered how a little Schminke powder in the paint can really gunk up the pen.

It was a fun, playful afternoon!

AAAARRRGGGGHHHHH!!!

I've been trying to get my logo centered on this beast, but it won't cooperate! Time to let it be...and go catch some zzzzzzzs. Night, night.

A Birthday Card...

I got out my watercolors and created this card for my sister's birthday. I hadn't done this kind of decoration in a while, but had a blast doing it!

Then I got carried away and decided to decorate the inside as well...

There are definitely things I would do differently next time, but for now, I'm happy with it - & so was she!