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Itinerary for Miniature Painting workshop
Workshop Leaders: Olivia Dalrymple and Ajay Sharma
Venue: Diggi Palace
Introduction, 4:30 - 6pm: Welcome Tea on Diggi Palace lawn
Day 1, 10 - 1pm: You will learn how to prepare handmade paper, pasting sheets together and burnishing with an agate stone. You will then be shown how to mix kharia (chalk white) and paint a couple of coats as your base colour on the paper, before burnishing again. You also learn how to mix kajal and practise using a very fine squirrel brush. Then you will spend time deciding on your subject matter and the main colours needed from your box of stone pigments.
Day 2, 10 - 4pm: You will trace your subject matter and transfer it onto prepared paper using carbon trace paper. You will learn how to grind and mix pigments to the correct consistency and start the process of colour-filling, by first outlining individual colour areas and then using the drip technique. You will again burnish with an agate stone.
Day 3, 10 - 4pm: You will complete the filling in of your colour areas and make your outlines with the squirrel brush, adding more detailed work and learning the practise of prataj (shading).
Day 4, free: Kite Festival Holiday
Day 5, 10 - 4pm: You will complete the process of line work and prataj. You will be taught how to use liquid gold for detailed brushwork and how to apply gold leaf for larger areas.
Day 6, 10 - 1pm: You will finish off your painting with a border and learn how to draw a 'cut' line to complete your miniature. You will then burnish the entire picture, ready to display at the afternoon exhibition at Diggi Palace.
Please note that traditional paper, pigments and brushes will be supplied for the workshop, but any additional shopping at the bazaar will be at your own expense. Whilst everything will be done to ensure your safety during the course of these workshops, you undertake to participate at your own risk.
Introduction to the Miniature Painting Workshop
by Olivia Dalrymple
I first fell in love with miniature painting when I visited the National Museum in Delhi roughly 20 years ago: the jewel-like colours, the detail, decoration, size and subject matter of the paintings I saw completely enchanted me. I’ve been striving to make my own miniatures ever since, but it wasn’t until I met the Master miniature painter Ajay Sharma, 6 years ago that I really started to get into the heart and soul of the medium- learning its ancient techniques and visual vocabulary. Like the Old Pink City of Jaipur itself, Ajay is an endless fascinating font of knowledge about this very precious traditional art form.
During the Wonderful Workshop week in Jaipur, people on the miniature painting course have the unique opportunity of really entering into Ajay’s world – exploring the Old City’s bazaars with their alchemists and artisan’s workshops with us and learning how to prepare hand-made paper, grind and mix semi-precious stone pigments, work with miniature squirrel hair brushes, and use liquid gold for detailed brushwork and how to apply gold leaf to produce a completed miniature for show at the end of the week!
It’s a wonderfully intense week mixing as it does the hurly burly chaos of Jaipur with the meditative calm that pervades miniature painting at its best. I very much hope you all enjoy it as much as we do!
Olivia Dalrymple is an artist & illustrator who specialises in miniature painting techniques, and has had many solo shows in both India and UK She has illustrated her husband William’s books, and written and illustrated her own children’s book for an Indian NGO dedicated to increasing literacy
AJAY SHARMA has run many miniature painting workshops, often travelling all over India He frequently teaches International students at his own studio in Jaipur, including those on Fulbright scholarships from USA