Palette of India: The Art & Painting Journey

Delhi's art world in one arc: the Mughal masterworks of the National Museum with a curator, lunch among Khan Market's gallerists, then the contemporary scene — a private walkthrough of a leading gallery's back rooms and a studio visit with an artist whose work you will recognise in five years.

To Jaipur, and into a working miniature atelier of the old school: pigments ground from lapis and saffron, brushes of squirrel hair holding a single line, gold leaf breathed — literally breathed — onto the page. Your first supervised miniature begins today: a folio-format study you will finish by week's end.

The city as palette: fresco secrets in the painted chambers of Amber before the crowds, the blue-pottery workshops of the old city, and an afternoon plein-air session in the flower market — marigold orange against pink stucco, resolved in gouache under your tutor's eye.

Drive south through the Aravallis to Udaipur — the subcontinent's most painted view, and this week, yours. Arrive over the water at the Lake Palace, then a first golden-hour session from the jetty: the City Palace facade going bronze across Pichola, brushes out until the light fails.

Inside the City Palace with its keeper of paintings: the Mewar school's battle scenes and durbars^✦durbarsThe royal court or audience hall of a maharaja or nawab — and by extension the great ceremonial assemblies of princely India. Palace hotels' 'durbar…Read in the glossary ↗, folios turned with gloved hands, dynasty by dynasty. Afternoon in a private royal collection rarely opened, then your own folio resumes at the atelier annex — the gold leaf goes on today.

Finishing day: morning at the easel completing your folio — final lines, the burnishing, the master's seal beside your signature — and a closing critique over lunch that is far kinder than art school. The afternoon frames the week: your miniature mounted in archival board, ready to hang.

A last lake-light breakfast, paintings packed flat with conservator's care, and flights home via Udaipur's little airport. Your kit, folio, sketchbook and pigments travel with you; the eye you've retrained travels lighter still.