Event alert - Chitra Santhe 2014

When - Sunday, 5th January 2014, 8 AM to 7 PM
Where - Chitrakala Parishath, Kumara Krupa Road

Chitra means picture and Santhe means fair, so Chitra Santhe is a picture fair organized by Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath where artists from all over the country gather to display and sell their paintings. I have never been to the previous ones but I got to know that this year it will be the 11th year for this annual event. My brother-in-law has been a regular to Chitra Santhe over the years and my in-laws house has an enviable collection of paintings. They were the first thing I noticed when I went there the first time to meet Puneeth's extended family. I was quite nervous and jittery that day and my Mom had warned me not to talk much and stay silent and coy (haha so funny when I think about that day) and I kept stealing glances at all the paintings around me. After we came back my Dad made a lot of fun of me saying I was sitting there like a frog darting my eyes all over to catch a fly! Nonetheless I was impressed by the paintings and not to forget a gorgeous sand stone sculpture of a dancer that I resolved to go to Chitra Santhe next time. The next time was just after my wedding so I could not go but I am definitely going this year. Cya there :)

Event Review

If I had to describe Chitra Santhe in one word, it will have to be overwhelming and awe inspiring, ok that was two words but seriously I was awed by the sheer number of artists and paintings. The whole street and the by-lanes were filled with paintings on both sides and it took us 3 whole hours to just walk through the place and see almost everything. We only skipped one by-lane as we were exhausted by then. We reached the venue early, by around 12.30 PM (that’s early by my standards ok :P). The place was not very crowded then and we could stroll through easily. Apparently serious buyers come early by 8 AM itself to avoid the rush and grab the best pieces. Upon reaching, we decided to take one round and then come back to the pieces we liked. What we did not realize was that taking one round would take us 3 hours and that we would like so many paintings that we lost count in the first hour itself. By then we also realized that we were not experienced enough to buy art, forget price negotiation or checking out the technique or the medium used etc, deciding on one piece to buy is a herculean task here as at every step you find something better than the previous one or more suited to our tastes rather. So we decided to just soak up the atmosphere, roam around and see as many as we could, debate on which one each of us felt was good and why, and generally have a good time. And good time we had. The tree-lined street flanked by colourful paintings on both sides made an excellent setting for the good time. There were a number artists sketching portraits, there were a lot of ice-cream carts (blessing in the scorching sun), coconut water vendors, steamed groundnut vendors etc. It was heartening to see so many people turn up see and buy paintings. Many people got along their kids and it was fun to watch their gleeful expressions and awed faces on seeing the paintings. We came back empty handed but our minds were filled with the images we saw. Hopefully next year we would have evolved enough (artistically and financially) to make a buy and if not even then, the next one maybe, what’s the hurry J

The place when we left at around 3.30 PM