Umaid Heritage Art School, Jodhpur

Rajpoute art is a must in Jodhpur. In the old town and at the market everything is profusion of bright colors and especially the blue often on walls and doors. The beauty of the miniature is in this extraordinary place. You'll have to venture like me off the beaten track but not so much! Just go to the older streets of the city and search for crafts. To access this beautiful place, follow the smells of vegetables and fruits as well as the grain circuit and you will arrive on a peaceful courtyard where millers are busy with flour and others sort the lentils. Few people, a few bold like me. Suddenly, you come across Vijay's shop, on paintings, a small art gallery. Once inside you are invited to sit on ue bench and look around you, for a well-deserved break. We offer you a ma ace at the winery. Why not? Looking at the look, shop/workshop, ceilings, you find Jodhpur and Rajasthan but that's not all. Yellow lentils on a small cart, pigments, tiny brushes and hold you look at the window attracted by small chiseled paintings, maps with a whole series of animals and characters, frescoes, paintings like a cave of Ali baba with its treasures. We'll let you observe in peace. I had not booked this visit alone the beauty of art and hasrd guided me to this place. Then the miniaturist master, Vijay arrives and tells you about the miniatures, exposes them to you under the light of the lamp and tells you the local story ... I have seen a lot of groups, young and otherwie. We go home, we go out, we find out, a guide speaks Hindi. Then Vijay talks about lenses and you're intrigued. It makes you an elephant on a lens in less than a minute. It's amazing! That's how I learned that it's an institution and is called Lentil Man. The technique is old and then neither one nor two, he invites you to his art workshop to introduce you to creation and painting if you wish for 2 hours for free, to teach you the miniature ... free to buy or not but here it is more about saving a legacy, a technique and being beauty smugglers. You learn that pigments are natural, gemstone powders and that brushes are made of squireil hair... in a place surrounded by noise you are amateurs or other attracted by this art. Some will see it as a stage in a circuit or others like me will come back to discover the intricacies of miniature which can take days and months to realize on stamped papers or suitable supports. Umaid Heritage is for us a school of art sometimes ephemeral but so alive. Thanks to Vijay and wa family for this sharing. There are still places like this that are worth getting to know in Jodhpur. Don't hesitate to pass, it's worth a visit!