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Workshop on sandtoning at Dhaka Art Center
The five-day workshop on 'Sandtoning', a technique that achieves light and shadow using blackened sand, conducted by artist Azyz Sharafy, an associate professor of Washburn University's art department, was a source of curiosity on the part of many an artist active in the Dhaka art scene.
Launched at Dhaka Art Centre, on 21 may 2010, the workshop was inaugurated by pioneering artist, Aminul Islam, one of the outspoken proponents of modern art in this region. Dhaka Art Centre trustee board member artist Nisar Hossain was also present at the occasion.
Divided into five groups, some sixty aspiring as well as established artists took part in the workshop, who tried their hands on this newly-introduced technique of applying blackened sand on paper and plastic wood. About his newly-invented process of drawing,
Azyz said that, the technique allows the artists to achieve a whole range of tones and values. He also pointed out that one can augment the possibilities by exploring metal, stone, cardboard, wood and papers as the work surface, and he also added that to achieve the desired chiaroscuro one needs to manipulate the act of spreading the sand on the freshly-glued surface.
Though the outcome of the workshop testifies to the fact that black and white yielded the most extraordinary results, Azyz pointed out that coloured sand applied to colourful surfaces can be a way to attain chromatic variations.
The workshop also provided an occasion for the organizers to arrange an exhibition of seventeen artworks by Azyz Sharafy at the same venue. The exhibition and the workshop were open from 3:00pm to 8:00pm, between May 21 and 25