So right around the time this lockdown started, my cousin messaged me on WhatsApp about this Facebook page by ISOLA Mumbai – “Try participating.. Anu if you have time… This is organised by my faculties from landscape”. Instinctively, I replied – “Oh wow…this is very good 👍🏻👍🏻👌👌, I will participate.” It turned out to be a really good idea as it brought a lot of positivity in my life during this first lockdown of my life.
Everyone is in a tough place due to the critical situation created by the stupid virus. However, at the same time, the human race has also learned new ways to persevere, find new purposes in life, new ways of remaining positive, and also new ways of bringing joy and positivity in others’ lives!
ISOLA was one such beautiful attempt. This message above from my cousin was about an initiative to make 21 paintings – one for each day of the lockdown. Every day they published a theme for that day’s painting.
I started on the day it was “As The Wind Blows”. I made a sunset landscape with color pencil shading, where this girl was standing in a grassy meadow, wearing a long dress that was blowing the air, the grass too was also swaying softly in the wind’s direction.
Every morning we got a topic every day and had to send our work through email between 5:30 pm to 6:30 pm the same day. The choice of medium to choose was up to the participants. This was the most positive and challenging thing I did during this lockdown every day as it kept me engaged for many hours designing my artwork, followed by executing it on canvas or paper. I had great fun doing this and waited eagerly every morning for the new topic/theme :).
The image shared in this blog is a collage of all those paintings and here are the themes, try to mix and match :).
| Looking out from the window Reflections The Wind Blows In The Woods Ambiguity The Worth of Water Gardens of Memory Urban Farming Nocturnal Landscape Land meets Water Sky meets Land | The Rivers shall flow forever Sacred Landscapes Climate Change & You Playful Landscapes Nesting in Nature Subterranean Landscapes Associations in Nature Desert Landscapes Geometry in Nature We within Nature Tropical Life |
At the end of the 21 days, it felt so good to see all the artists’ beautiful paintings in their own individual style and their creativity. Among the artists, there were two kids whose drawings were the best, and they were selected as the winners. Personally, I felt that these kids had the best imaginative powers!
