ONLINE GOND ART WORKSHOP WITH VENKAT SHYAM

At Memeraki, join our heritage art workshops and learn from master artists around India who have been practicing these arts since generations. The workshops are structured to be suitable for both beginners and seasoned artists. Art is truly therapeutic and will hopefully help you as much as it is helping us! Join us in the movement to revive India's heritage and traditional arts.

This will be a 2 hour class will be conducted over Zoom , adults and children over 8 can join.

Venkat Shyam will guide you on how to create the basic drawing and the other intricacies of Gond Art.

About the artist:  “Every artist from the Gond community has developed a unique style and patterning for their art. For me, it is the Bindu or dot (symbolising the supreme god) and the half moon around it (symbolising our village and community). I see so much similarity between my work and that of Dali and Picasso!” Venkat Raman Singh Shyam was 10 when he picked up pieces of charcoal and adorned every inch of the walls of his home and scraps of newspaper with sketches of all that he saw in his village. Born into a Gond Pardhan family in Sejohra village of Madhya Pradesh, Venkat has entrenched himself in the world of Art for the last 4 decades. Training under his uncle, famed Gond artist late Jangarh Singh Shyam, Venkat learnt to develop his own unique style while visually narrating ancient tales of his community and modern day scenes of the world around him. The essence of Venkat’s art is rooted in the crossroad where ancient oral histories meet with independent vision. “Change is the ultimate rule of nature and the universe. While the theme of my paintings are rooted in my traditions and mythology, my narrative constantly adapts to reach out to varied audiences” says Venkat.

Materials that you will need:

• A4 Size plain paper (a couple of extra sheets to practice sketching)
• Poster colors (preferred, if you don’t have access to poster colors, you can use acrylic colors)
• Brushes (size 0 to size 4/5), water and palette for mixing
• Black pen for outlines (not mandatory, can outline with brush and paint too)
• Pencil and rubber for sketching

Terms and Conditions:

• Details to join the zoom call and a calendar invite will be sent on Fridays, a day before the workshops once we receive payment (please don't select the option for COD).
• The workshops are attended by beginners as well as others who may already be acquainted with art hence, we will keep a pace that everyone is comfortable with.
• We will share a recording of the workshop after the workshop, so even if you miss anything please don't worry as you can still follow again from the recording. We will keep the recordings for a week, please download after the workshop.
• The artists mostly speak in Hindi, Memeraki team will be moderating and translating.
• Workshop will be conducted over Zoom. If you don't already use Zoom, please download the zoom app on your phone or laptop (easier to sit on a desk with a laptop or with the phone on a stand so you can see the artist paint and follow at the same time and so that the artist can also see you painting. Please sit in a well-lit place)
• Please test audio and video on zoom. Please stay on mute during the workshop so that everyone can hear the artist, please unmute anytime you wish to ask a question. We may also request you to switch off video at some points as the locations where the artists are sometimes don’t have good bandwidth (we have tested and it works fine usually)
• We will also create a WhatsApp group for easy communication on the day of the class. The group will be deleted a couple of days after the class. Please also join our Facebook group to keep in touch with us and other participants https://www.facebook.com/groups/1632293370227782.
• Class is not transferable to another person - please do not share the zoom class link with others once you have registered and please join with the registered email address