My Painting Class

Finally the day arrived for my Explorer group tour—the one I arranged— a painting class with artist Pak Sutanto. Nine of our group were able to attend. For me, leading a tour was a lot of work. I fretted over everything beginning with the initial contact —by phone as my email went unanswered.

However, once I'd spoken with Pak Sutanto on the phone, he did respond to my emails. I made a site visit to the gallery in the week before our class. I wanted to introduce myself and meet him. I also met his foster parents. He stated at one point that the foster parents had given him the opportunity to pursue his art. Once I'd met him in person, everything flowed much better. Most things work here because of relationships and this experience really demonstrated that. Two things happened that relate to the "relationship" notion.You see small tubs of water with small straws everywhere here. This was one of the items provided during the class. There was a pile of these little water tubs by the snacks and coffee. I'd barely finished one and another one appeared at my station. No need for me to actually get up, walk over to the snack table and get it myself. Also, early in the class Pak Sutanto came over and set up my easel himself.  (Note: As these things happened I looked around to see it he was doing this for everyone. He was only doing it for me. Call me special!)

Notice that the classroom is an open veranda adjacent to a beautiful garden. Many Indonesian homes are constructed this way.  I recommended bug spray to the rest of the group once I saw the layout—just in case. It was surprisingly cool and comfortable on the veranda and not too many mosquitoes.

After coffee and snacks, Pak Sutanto spoke briefly about his art, then it was our turn. He had drawn our project on each of the fans we were going to decorate. Here's my finished fan!

I think all of the ladies had a nice time. I received quite a few thank you's for organizing it.

Often on these tours, the group will follow up with a lunch somewhere. In this case lunch was  provided by Pak Sutanto's foster parents. Typical Indonesian fare and very good.

Before we left for the day we had a chance to shop a little in the gallery.  I just had to pick up a Kleenex cover! Kleenex are mostly sold in plastic bags, not boxes, and only on rare occasion are they anything but a basic industrial design. The Kleenex pack in the living room now has a very attractive cover. Yes, there are giant beetles on the Kleenex cover. What would you expect from us? Does anyone remember Clyde the ancient mask Kleenex box where the Kleenex exits through the mask's nose?