Four Parishes Arts Society - March 2007

On a very wet night on 13th February, Bob Bell entertained members of the Four Parishes Art Society to an insight into the colourful Indian life. As the rain poured down outside, we were transported to the land of sun and colour through Bob Bell's wonderful photography, projected onto a huge screen, all the while accompanied by traditional Indian music.

Ancient temples with magnificent arches and intricate sandstone carvings. Beautiful, highly coloured wall paintings in the havelis (large houses) and even the peasants decorated and painted their walls.

From the picking of the cotton to spinning, weaving, dyeing, printing and embroidery - very much a cottage and sometimes pavement industry - was shown. Although the women wear colourful saris all the time, they dress in magnificent coloured and intricately embroidered saris for dancing in the temples, and for weddings.  Even elephants and camels are sometimes adorned in their tradition 'dress', once again colourfully embroidered. Folk dancing is a great tradition in Rajasthan with its traditional music and very colourful dresses.

The small town of Pushkar is one of the pilgrimage centres a Hindu must visit. We were told the story of a legend and from this legend a beautiful lake appeared. It was the time of the first full moon in November and over lapped with one of the largest camel fairs in Asia. On this note the last slide was of a camel's head, set against the distant hills behind which the huge orange sun was setting. Breathtaking!

Bob Bell had brought with him many samples of saris, shawls, and wedding clothes intricately embroidered often with gold thread. There was also a wedding canopy and a decorative arch surround and an intricately embroidered bed cover. A novelty 'camel' displaying all their traditional 'dress', such as appliqué cover, girth strap with an enormous, heavy tassel on the end, elaborate neck decoration and a head decoration.

It was a truly memorable evening.

On Tuesday 13 March, Diana Coldicott will give us “Glimpses into the History of the Four Parishes”, and on Thursday 22 March, we are visiting the Tate Galleries