Tagore Doodles

Painting didn't come easily to Nobel prize for Literature winner Rabindranath Tagore though he worked at it for a long time. He did however make a habit of turning his written mistakes, cross outs, etc into elaborate drawings and doodles as he wrote. "He turned struck-out words into ornamental motifs and sometimes linked the scratched out words on the pages of his manuscripts into an art-nouveau-like arabesque .....Victoria Ocampo who spotted these during his stay in Argentina as her guest was impressed and found artistic merit in them. "He played with erasures,‟ she wrote, "following them from verse to verse with his pen, making lines that suddenly jumped into life out of this play: prehistoric monsters, birds, faces appeared.‟'* Tagore went on to be recognized as a great painter, and was the first Indian artist to have artwork displayed around the world.

*Current Exhibitions Upcoming Exhibitions Past Exhibitions. "Rabindranath Tagore: The Last Harvest | New York". Asia Society. Retrieved 2012-12-18.
As a way to acknowledge and reconcile our own inevitable 'mistakes and cross-outs' I think it would be great to collect them in the art room as the year goes by, or encourage other teachers to contribute, and have children choose 'a mistake' to use as a starting point for any type of artwork, depending on the materials at hand and the time frame. It could be the community scrap bin that kids turn to when they finish with something else or they could be distributed randomly and incorporated into paintings or collages, sketches, etc. imagine a whole display of artwork made from other people's mistakes or false starts. It sends a good message about upcycling as well.

Tagore 1861-1941

Tagore's own signature:

Gond Paintings

The Gond people believe that viewing a good image brings you good luck so it's no surprise that their paintings are so joyful. They make the paintings on the walls of their houses to mark special occasions and only recently started to paint on paper with poster paints. Animals and nature scenes dominate these paintings, which consist of a simple single color shape filled with dots and lines described here as being: like undulations of song, like fables within tales, colourful dots and lines chase each other in close succession. Immense patience and delicate brush strokes are part of the meditative process. The Gond tribe was known for storytelling and song, and a connection could be made between that and the rhythmic energy of their heavily patterned artwork. One artist I spoke to told me the inspiration for the dots and dashes that fill the animals is rice, and the article I linked to above says they are evocative of the tattoos on the Gond women. The simple graphics combined with intricate patterning and vibrating colors provide instant inspiration for artists of all ages.

After outlining their animal shapes with pencil, children should choose one main color in acrylic or tempera paint to fill them in. Good quality markers or sharpies could be used for the patterning, or detail brushes and paint in both bright colors, black, and white. This could also be a great collage project, a photograph of an animal could be traced and cut out of fadeless paper or traced once onto multiple layers of colored tissue papers. Once those papers have been glued to a white background, acrylic paint can be added with a detail brush or toothpick. Dots, lines, and dashes can be used or students could think of a pattern that has some special significance. Add a black marker outline for a final touch.

Terra cotta Horses of Aiyanar

These enormous (larger than life) horse sculptures were created by villagers so that the protector Aiyanar could ride them at night to chase away evil demons, thereby ensuring good luck for the town. Different horses from different areas were decorated with different types of objects and creatures. These horses are made, in pieces, on the wheel, seams are hidden under decorations. If you were in charge of designing your own village's horses, what sort of decorations and patterns would you put on them?
Cut a large horse out of red or brown paper, draw it first in chalk, making sure to have tips of ears, tail, nose, and hooves touch the edges of the paper. Decorate your horse using black or white marker, crayon, or chalk. Or use white or black paint and detail brushes. Would be a great clay project as well--once horse has been created, use coils and small balls of clay for all sorts of decorations. Another approach would be to collage decorations onto a painting of a horse.

Gujarat Mud Mirror Work

This is a great example of combining unexpected materials. Mud surface is flat and mirrored mosaics add depth. Found on the outside of thatched roof huts, and in some interiors. Children can design their own Gujarati style huts by embedding bits of aluminum foil in white paint (thickened with rice flour or some other medium, sand might work as well?). Foil bits should be cut and close by on the same day as the painting, so the bits can be pressed down into wet paint. Children should consider pattern and symmetry as they plan and execute their designs and consider important details like windows and doorways. Huts can be finished with straw on top for a roof.