10 July,2011 08:24 AM IST | | Lhendup G Bhutia & Sowmya Rajaram
Couples and friends can test their compatibility through an art workshop by choosing colours over a shared canvas and brush. But no talking. SMD writers Lenny and Sowmya decided to give it a shot
When the day began with Sowmya calling my favourite film reviewer an idiot, I wasn't quite sure how our evening's Encounter With Colour would shape up. Started by art therapist and The Art Loft co-founder Leila Tayebaly, the two-hour workshop at the creative hub in Bandra seeks to test compatibility between individuals and uncover individual traits.
We were asked to choose a primary colour each, and then paint with a shared brush until we were ready to merge the two colours into a secondary colour. All communication had to be non-verbal. A bit of an aside: but as a journalist, the toughest assignment for me is sharing a byline. This workshop was like that in a lot of ways.
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I would painstakingly make a nice little blue thing, and in the next step, Sowmya's red would be all over it, obliterating any trace of it, like how someone were to chop off and redo words in an article. At some point, we were told, we need to identify shapes in the painting and accentuate them.
And there, between the reds, I saw it -- the adorable alien from ET and a lovable camel. For the next 10 minutes, I tried showing it to Sowmya, colouring it, smiling at it. When it was her turn, the first thing she did was to draw red little things on my alien and camel. She was bleeding it and a moment later there was nothing but blood!
In the end, we somewhat agreed that we could see fish-like things and drew them. According to Tayebaly, although, we made some nice looking purples, we still retained areas of our own colours, thereby indicating strong individualistic traits. When she asked us to name our painting, Sowmya suggested Toffee Fishes. "Toffee Fishes? Seriously?" I asked, thinking, 'How can someone name anything toffee when they just killed a camel and an alien?'
Having ploughed resolutely through the pouring rain on Thursday, I was nervous, waiting for Lenny to arrive. My closest trysts with art have involved smiley faces, and doodling misshapen plants when at a meeting. Naturally, I had apprehensions about letting my painting process with him speak for our personalities.
Ten minutes in though, and life was infinitely more welcoming. I chose my favourite colour, red, and set to work as he waited for his turn with his deep blue. Having run the brush across the canvas to my satisfaction, I passed it on, willing him to march to the centre quickly, so the two would create purple, which I was eager to see. It wasn't to be. Only after red had overtaken 60 per cent of the canvas, did blue suddenly spring to life and approach us with halting strokes. Soon, the twain met in a deep shade of purple that had me beaming brightly.
But what of the shape? We craned our necks until we finally settled on red fish in a purple-blue sea, but not before he said, "I saw a camel meeting an alien, but you killed it by painting over it!" I mumbled an apology and started to define the red fish, which by this point looked more like wrapped toffees. After his misbegotten attempt to create a blue predator that eventually turned into a wave for lack of definition, we decided that our work of 'art', 'Toffee Fish', was ready. So much for Lenny's E.T.
Tayebaly shared what she gathered from how we approached the exercise. "You covered the canvas very fast, which is the personality of red, a warm, energetic colour that likes action. Such people also like sports."
A sport fanatic that I am, her comment had me grinning from ear to ear at Lenny, who was still holding the sceptre of his bloodied camel above my head.
