My Desert Elopement - behind glass 9 x 8"

About 20 years ago I apprenticed myself to a Rajasthani painter for several months. I sat cross-legged with 6 young men, under a tarpaulin roof, high up on top of an ancient building in Udaipur (see map) and learned to paint traditional Moghul paintings on silk. We had to arrive one hour before the Master and grind all his precious stone paints to a silky smoothness in preparation for his wondrous works that filled me with envy. He taught his pupils to trace before painting - using pin pricks in the paper and charcoal dust and was amazed that I wanted to do everything freehand. To prepare the silk rice was boiled in lots of water. The rice was eaten later but the excess liquid was used to impregnate the silk that was then laid and smoothed out on a board or on the floor. There it dried and wasn't peeled off until the painting was finished. The really delicate outlining was done with a brush using curved hairs from a ground-squirrel tail (they were just caught, a few hairs removed and then let go!) - I use mine now for outlining my eyes! Real gold leaf was ground and mixed with a secret ingredient to make it stick to the silk! We also worked on small marble slabs and I once painted on ivory ( reclaimed from an earlier painting that had got damaged) which was the only thing that was actually sold but I paid for my apprenticeship by talking to tourists who were wheeled in by touts to see what we were doing! Those were the days - can't sit cross-legged any more!