For two hours, every day, 70-year-old Uma Gopalan feels like a school girl. Along with others students, she sits in a class run by Adyar Art Club. Attending this class for last seven years, Uma has learnt different forms of paintings, including acrylic, oil and pen sketching.
Besides her determination to pick up all the skills an artist would need, the homelike ambience at the Adyar Art Club had drawn her to this class. The Club, founded by Lakshmi Raghavan, is celebrating its 29th anniversary. A graduate in Fine Arts from Stella Maris College, Lakshmi started the Club when she returned to Chennai after many years spent travelling.
“After my wedding, my husband and I travelled through India on work before settling down in the city. I decided to do something to make use of my time,” she says. “British Council has played a part in how I began to do what I am doing. I was a member of the library and read many books on child education, which helped a lot in my initial days,” she adds.
In the early days, she ran the classes with just four to five neighbourhood kids.
Now, the classes are much bigger, with both children and adults coming to learn various art forms, including Tanjore painting, Mysore painting and calligraphy.
Besides the regular classes, the Adyar Art Club is hosting an annual drawing and painting competition for school students (classes III to VIII).
The competition will be held on January 8 on the Art Club premises at 8/2, Jeevarathnam Nagar First Street, Adyar. For further details, contact 9841551855, 9543182409, 9884262663.
