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The vast and exalted open air art gallery at Shekhawati, an area that lies roughly between Delhi, Jaipur and Bikaner, dates to the 18^th century.   Frescoes are the most important draw here and they decorate almost everything like royal properties, temples, schools and hundreds of havelis (mansions) of the seths, or taipans of the desert.   The seths manage their lives by trading caravan-loads of spices, silks, and opium when they weren’t grinding the faces of the peasants.  Featured in this frescoes are several awesomely conceived scenes from Hindu cosmology, as well as blow-by-blow accounts of the life in the times of local royalty.  In delicately portrayed scenes of landscapes, dancing girls, and royal dalliances, the Raja is always the chap burdened with larges eyes, a wide-angle mustache and a turban the size of an airconditioner. 

Access to Shekhawati is through Jaipur, or the “new” road that leads off Dharuhera from the Delhi-Jaipur highway.  But don’t be bothered that before you get there, Shekhawati pioneers Aman Nath and Franciss Wacziarg will intercept you with their imaginative properties: The Neemrana Fort Palace.   Neemrana, a painstakingly reconstructed medieval fortress, has achieved cult status among visitors to Rajasthan.  Sprawling majestically over 25 acres on a concealed plateau in the Aravalli ranges, Neemrana offers intimate terraces with beautiful views, quirky corridors and staircases, traditional entertainment, and Rajasthani –and yes, French– cuisine.

If you don’t know what to do in the Rajasthan, somebody will get you at the foothills of the Himalayas, at the Ramgarh Bungalows, on the Ganges at the Glasshouse on the ganges, yea, even in Kuchesar at the Mud Fort about two hours out of Delhi.

In Rajasthan there is a dense concentration of frescoes around Navalgarh where Roop Niwas Palace offers its hospitality in a curious mix of European and Rajput architectural styles.  Down the road in Mukandgarh there was a spate of building in the 1860s and the locals claim that their havelis have the finest frescoes bar none.

Just before entering Jaipur, picturesque Samode Palace offers a beautiful accommodation in breathtaking surroundings.  Apart of the fact that most of the building is an outstanding Hall Of Mirrors, the large Audience Hall is beautifully painted by hand from floor to the ceiling.  Of course there is much more to Rajasthan than pretty pictures.

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The term mixed media refers to a work of art made out of multiple material. The common use of mixed media was a significant trend in the development of art in the twentieth century. The most common is collage. The art critic Clement Greenberg suggested that collage, a form of mixed media where various items are merged in a single composition, was one of the most important methods in the advancement of modern art. Greenberg places the origin of collage in the work of Pablo Picasso as well as Georges Braque in the years between 1911 and 1913. Braque’s “Fruit Dish” (1912) is identified by Greenberg as one of the 1st real mixed media paintings, and Picasso’s “Guitar” (1913) is an early collage which had significant ramifications for future years of art in the 20th century.

The earliest mixed media artists, although they weren’t referred to as mixed media artists, artists of the Byzantine Empire, 330 to 1453 A.D., often utilized gilded gold leaf on their paintings, mosaics, frescoes and manuscripts. The arts gone stale in the Dark Ages, but prospered with the emerging of the Renaissance. Besides utilizing tempera, a paint medium that dates to the ancient Egypt, oil painting became well-known. A lot of artists applied gold leaf to painted wood panels to achieve vibrant skies or shining halos on religious panels.

The Cubist art movement started in Europe in the early years of the 20th century. It broke from hundreds of years of traditional painting by depicting objects as 3-dimensional images that could be painted from multiple points of view. Space was no longer limited to the flat canvas; by simply utilizing an analytical system, artists can fragment and redefine points of views.

Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque are considered the fathers of Cubism. Although they were doing work separately without any communication between them, both artists produced works which were very similar. By breaking down art to dimensional points of reference, they dealt with space and form rather than realistic images. In the year 1912, Picasso made his first real mixed media piece, “Still Life with Chair Caning.” He pasted paper and also oilcloth to canvas and merged them with painted areas. Beginning in 1912, Picasso applied mixed media techniques to dimensional sculpture. The “Glass of Absinthe” made in 1914 is a vertical piece with many disparate objects constructed together, while “Still Life” involved sticking leftovers of wood and a piece of upholstery fringe together and painting them. A lot more realistic is his 1923 piece “The Lovers” which was completed using ink, watercolour paints as well as charcoal on paper.

Mixed media art nowadays can be traced from drawing commencing the work of early artists. Mixed media is now an available art form for both amateur and professional artists. Assemblage and collage can be found combined with acrylic and watercolour painting, rubber-stamped art, sculpture and also altered books. Fabric, ripped papers, inks, glitters as well as beads are discovering their way into fine arts works and commercial pieces such as greeting cards and even quilts. The way forward for mixed media, it appears, is fixed merely by the creative thinking of artists and anything they could get their hands on. 

Some of the most valuable early artwork comes from a point of time before the Renaissance had begun, and going on through the early Middle Ages, referred to as the period of Gothic art.  During this particular time in history, the artwork took on telling narrative stories through pictures, and much of these pieces were Christian and secular in nature.  Some of the earliest examples of Gothic art are sculptures found on cathedral and abbey walls, and the first real form of Gothic artwork began as architectural works in fact, even becoming the subject matter for many stained glass windows at the time.

The style of painting that further defined Gothic art wasn’t produced until nearly fifty years after Gothic architecture and sculptures, and even though the break between Romanesque artwork and the Gothic styles has remained imprecise at best, the beginnings of Gothic artwork seems to occur in various areas at different but related intervals.  The artwork began in England and France around 1200, and in other areas like Germany and Italy between 1220 and 1300.  The paintings stayed just as narrative as the architecture on church walls during this time, and has stayed the territory of secular storytelling for a long time afterwards.

Though Gothic art in paintings has had a relatively short time as the medium of choice amongst the artists, there is evidence that the artwork falls into four particular styles of these paintings, and these were the most common forms during this time period.  The fresco, the panel painting, the illuminated manuscript, and the artwork done on stained glass are all depictions of Gothic painting.  Of these particular types, stained glass artwork had remained a strong reminder of those ages long past, and is still created by master artisans that learned their trade skills from these dark ages.

In the case of the other three particular forms of Gothic painting, frescoes continued to be used as the pictorial narratives on church walls in southern Europe, and were a consistent incorporation of early Christian and Romanesque traditions.  In Italy, during the 13th century, the panel painting began and spread throughout Europe.  With this proliferation, panel paintings became even more predominant by the 15th century, and becoming even more popular than stained glass at the time.  Since not all monumental works have survived, illuminated manuscripts are the most complete record of Gothic painting, and provide a comprehensive account of styles that would otherwise perished.

As the state of the world began to change, so too did the interpretations of the artwork as a reflection of these changing times and attitudes, and the movement became known as International Gothic by the late 15th century.  From there, it had evolved into an art form depicting not just secular stories and allegories, but also resulted in the occurrence of more illuminated manuscripts and paintings as increased trade and the rise of cities and universities grew.  With this proliferation of growth, more people were literate, and lead to better records kept with this occurring.  Leading up to many of the well-known medieval artists today.

The International Gothic style of artwork was developed in Burgundy, Bohemia, and northern Italy in the late 13th and early 14th centuries.  During this period in Gothic art, artists traveled widely around the civilized world at the time creating a common aesthetic among the aristocracy of the time, and removing the concepts of contrary artistic styles.  The main influences for this period in artwork were derived from northern France, the Netherlands, and Italy.  It was during this time, that aspects of rational uses of perspective and setting became a common feature, and other features included flowing lines and rich coloring.

In the case of Gothic sculpture, it had evolved from the elongated forms of the Romanesque style, and became a more naturalistic expression in the early 12th and late 13th centuries.  Influences from Greek and Roman statuary were incorporated into drapery, facial expressions, and poses.  The sculptor Claus Sluter and the changing tastes for more naturalistic styles became a harbinger for the end of the Gothic period of art, and signaled the beginning of the evolution into Renaissance period at the end of the 15th century.

In a time period where upheaval was the normal occurrence of many of the people then, Gothic art fell into the broad scope of medieval artwork that included such disparate elements and styles as Viking art and Celtic art, but in varying degrees relied upon the artistic heritage of the Roman Empire and the early Christian Church.  In fact, much medieval artwork has the history of these elements conjoining and converging into the remarkable artistic legacy we read about today, and have contributed over time to the outcome of many other forms of art from the Renaissance to the present day.

Ashlie Scheulen likes to write for UniformHaven.com who sells dickies scrubs, cherokee scrub pants and lab coats as well as a host of other products.