Last week, I was in Bhubaneswar attending an art camp. Just before you start imagining tents in the temple town in the blistering heat and 97 per cent humidity, let me tell the uninitiated that art camps are usually held in reasonable comfort and style. Most of the time artists live and paint in the same vicinity — sometimes even in the same room or else in collective spaces, where they interact with their work and that of others in a highly intensive manner for there is a time limit in place.
This painting-on-demand works well for all except those who take a long time with their work. While most artists are able to complete their works, the ones who can’t, have the option of sending it from their studios later.
The best part of any camp is touching base with other fellow artists and observing their techniques from close quarters. And of course the art world gossip from their respective towns. But heavens may take the hindermost if they don’t get along with each other for they are highly individualistic and have short fuses.
The selection of artists has to be an interesting one, and must open one’s mind’s view to include the works of artists who have been practicing for several years, but are not part of the charmed Delhi art circuit.
The fact that Orissa is so rooted and steeped in a highly-evolved classical tradition of music, dance and even traditional painting of the Pattachitra style or stone sculpture, makes me wonder if there is space for contemporary visual arts. But there were some very heartening reports from visual artists of the contemporary genre. The camp was held under the aegis of the soon to be launched art gallery Black Pagoda, and there are many expectations from the gallery as far putting Orissa on the art map is concerned.
The camp had an interesting mix of artists from all over the country including a large contingent from Delhi comprising Sridhar Iyer, K.R. Subbana, Vilas Kulkarni, Vijender Sharma, Kishore Roy among others, Avdhesh Misra from Lucknow, Parnam Singh from Benaras, A.S. Mani and Puroshottam from Bengaluru, Ram Suresh from Chennai and Satyapal from Kochi. Bhubaneshwar artists including Gajendra Padhy and Manas
Jena were also part of the camp.
While most of these artists’ works have been part of exhibitions in Delhi and other metros, there were two whose works in the camp were revelations. One was Puroshottam, whose work was subtle and very elegant in the selection of both subject and colour, and the other was Parnam Singh with his amazing energy and interplay of colours.
However for me, one of the highlights of the camp was meeting Lalatendu Rath, an artist of many parts and a very evolved person from Bhubaneshwar. Not only for his competent painting — he did a portrait of Tagore with an inset of the ever popular Binodini — that harked back to Bikash Bhattacharya’s realistic style in many ways, but for his angelic singing of old Talat and Rafi numbers. He is a self-taught artist, singer and actor, who has acted in a few Oriya films as well.
He gave up working for a PSU to follow his heart and art. Well-informed and well-read, it was such a pleasure interacting with a person whose aesthetics are in place and yet so quiet and modest. Makes me wonder why can’t there be more people like that?
Camps are also occasions for artists to chill out and it is like a group holiday with friends and colleagues, apart from travelling to other parts of the globe to imbibe images and experiences that lie in some corner of the mind’s canvas to take an eclectic shape at some point later.
And as a practicing curator and artist, I feel the focus should be on collecting these images that eventually assume greater proportions.
Evenings at camps should be structured to enable artists to share their films, pictures of their paintings and other artistic endeavours and meeting more like-minded people. Are camp organisers listening?

Dr Alka Raghuvanshi is an art writer, curator and artist