Bored in Lockdown? Fetch your Paintbrushes like these women did

The coronavirus lockdown has restricted all of us inside our homes. With hours of free time at hand, people are unleashing their creative sides and working on everything they wanted a vacation for. Many women have taken out their canvases and are releasing stress through brush strokes. We spoke with four such women who are using colours to cope in these dull times.

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Archana Bangera who takes art classes came up with the idea of engaging her students in art even during lockdown by conducting online competitions and posting their works on social media. The watercolour artist herself took to daily art practice through art competitions held on Facebook and Instagram pages. She says, "I started with an online art competition and this has become a regular art exercise these days. It (art) is making me stay calm during the lockdown. Since I look forward to painting every day, I'm enjoying it at home. I keep my children occupied as well through the diurnal artistic tasks. I've been planning to do many things during the lockdown. One of these is making tutorial videos that weren't possible before this, due to the lack of time." Archana sits and paints for about two hours or so during the afternoon. Take a look at her pieces.

Archana Bangera's Watercolour Art

Dolly Singh, a media professional and a yogini has been using the lockdown to make non-work-related embroidered pieces. She tells us about her most recent project that took three weeks to be completed, "I just finished something which is my dream house. So that house has a bougainvillea hedge. Being a yoga influencer, I wish to do yoga in that hedge. It has a pink gate with a guava tree. It has lots of windows with flowers. It has a lamppost, a bench, a hammock to daydream and also a vegetable garden." Here is a picture of the interesting dream house Dolly embroidered.

Dolly Singh's Embroidered Dream House

A NIFT graduate, Neha Bhatt has taken out her sketchbook and spends her time with micro-tip pens, some pencils and a few paints she can get hold of from her kids' stationery cabinet. She tells us, "Every day, I endeavour to sit for 15-20 minutes or maximum for an hour. In that span, I do my sketching, colours or whatever I'm in the mood for. With every piece I draw, I love to furnish a quote with it and often end up writing a few lines on my own. Art has been helping me detoxify and de-stress. When I'm drawing something, I'm engrossed in it and this lifts me in the grim scenario. Moreover, it feels good to get back to sketching after all these years."

Hina Bhatt conducts art classes, and hosted a 30-day art challenge, wherein people were to submit the art adaptations of pictures she has clicked. This ensures that they stay at home and paint throughout the lockdown since they can't share an old piece. Bhatt has seen immense growth in participation over the days. "People from remote villages have started participating, and it is creating visibility for those who wouldn't have been able to reach out, otherwise," she reveals. People from such areas have been seeking her guidance on how to go about sharing their work. She adds, "I am an artist myself and I'm also an art investor. Art is a stress-buster, I feel. You're occupied doing something constructive and that's a big satisfactory feeling. So, you have fewer things to complain about. I think in this stressful period, your mental fitness needs to be taken care of. So that way, this is really helping people."

Nafisa Sayed, an artist at heart works with watercolours, acrylics, pastels. She has been a practicing artist and exhibited globally including India, UAE, Paris, Brussels, Russia, New York, Toronto and Turkey. She is also an art historian and author. She divulges, "Art has helped me and my daughter to bring out our apprehension and fear through colours. It has been helpful in relaxing and letting us exploring our observations and turn them into art. I mostly make abstract art primarily focused on florals and hand mudra as nature and human components are worth combining for an artistic interpretation." Her work is an absolute inspiration.

Nafisa Sayed's creative pieces

Best selling author and columnist at SheThePeople, Madhuri Banerjee tweeted about her art work. "Art for today. A tree of life. Because there's so much life still, to look forward to," she says. Art or any other skills can be a mood lifted for those who are exploring these. Madhuri also writes about single parenting in this lovely column for us. Click here to read.

Art for today. A tree of life. Because there's so much life still, to look forward to. pic.twitter.com/BC7QfAbnva

— Madhuri Banerjee (@Madhuribanerjee) April 8, 2020

Also Read: We Women Sure Do Not Have Any Dearth For Masks!

Saavriti is an intern at SheThePeople.TV