Sketching away stress

BENGALURU: As a workshop space, the team behind Be Thoughtful was used to a packed schedule of classes at their space. But with the lockdown in place, these came to an end, albeit briefly. Four weeks ago, many queries came in for the art classes and workshops to be held online, which the team complied. Over time, the response grew so much that they recently launched a new batch from this week onwards, to cater to people’s artistic needs during the lockdown.

“We called these sessions Postcards of Hope because there was so much despair and fear around. This would give people something creative to do and something to look forward to as well,” says Karuna Jerome, founder of Be Thoughtful, which also doubles as a gift store, art and craft supplies store, design studio and an honour café in Koramangala. 

“On average, we’ve been seeing 10-15 logins for our daily sessions. The number of people per login, however, can vary since sometimes we have two people or an entire family join in,” says Jerome, adding that the new batch now divides participants into kids and intermediate levels. Since art supplies may not be easily available, the sessions, which are coordinated by Hansa Roberts and taught by Akshaya Moses, are designed to help a participant make do with whatever they have at home. Held over five days a week, the one-hour sessions deal with different media like pen and ink, acrylic colours, sketching, water colours, etc. The response has been positive, with many saying they find the sessions to be a big stress buster. “There’s so much uncertainty about the future and these classes seem to help ease that. Some even join it just to watch,” adds Jerome.

Mother of a nine-year-old, Preethi Balan, says the classes helped make her child’s evenings better. “He used to spend his time in the park earlier but now he can’t do that. But thanks to these sessions, he’s able to connect with his art teacher and friends,” she says. 

These classes are likely to continue through all of May and might even become a regular feature post the lockdown. “We were apprehensive because personal interaction has been a huge part of these sessions. But we’ve learned that it is possible to maintain that online as well. So one can expect a mix of in-person and online sessions,” says Jerome.