Indian Art Gallery Wall: Pattachitra Painting | Luxury Home Decoration 2019

My Pattachitra painting is ready and I could not believe my eyes when I saw the completed painting. Let me first tell you all that this painting was the most difficult one among all that I painted for my Indian Art Gallery Wall. 

Pattachitra is a famous art form of Odisha, India. Traditional Pattachitra is made on Patta or cloth/canvas and chitra means painting hence the painting got its name Pattachitra.

The theme of this painting style is inspired by Hindu mythology like many other Indian art forms. I chose Dashavatar (ten incarnations of god) for my Pattachitra painting theme. Earlier I had attended a Pattachitra painting workshop and I had made a small Pattachitra bookmark on dried banana leaf. You can check out the tutorial and my first Pattachitra painting here.
I stuck the same bookmark in the center of the drawing sheet to start the painting and then drew Dashavatar around it. 

Only main figures and bigger motifs are drawn using pencil/pen and rest of the detailing like filling gaps and border with patterns are done using a paint brush. Figures in Pattachitra are always well defined and motifs are quite detailed. 

Main colors used in Pattachitra paintings are yellow, red, blue, green, white and black. While filling colors, choose complementary color scheme as you go from the center towards the edge of the painting and choose analogous color scheme or tints & shades of the color to fill the patterns in a particular design. This practice makes the painting look vibrant and detailed. 

Intricate patterns are filled in every figure and motif. Fine details like features of gods, goddesses, animals and birds and detailing on clothes are done meticulously using a fine paint brush. It took me three days to complete this painting and I was in awe once it was done. 

Dashavatar you see in the above painting are Matsya, Kurma, Varaha, Narasimha, Vamana, Parashurama, Ram, Balram, Krishna (sometimes replaced by Buddha) and Kalki from the top left to bottom right respectively.  

My family and lots of my friends and readers are thoroughly enjoying this Indian Art Gallery wall series. Sometimes I receive emails and messages from my lovely readers saying how they are inspired to create one such wall in their homes too and how they keep checking my Instagram feed and blog just to check whether I have posted my next painting in this series. And some of them are so sweet that they even sent me some beautiful Indian folk paintings to complete the gallery wall. I will be posting about it in my next blog and that's not all, I have a big news to share with you all too. So...........

Stay tuned!!

UPDATE: Embedded a video of Pattachitra painting tutorial below. 

Indian Art Gallery Wall: Warli Painting | Luxury Home Decoration 2019

I am so happy that my "Indian Art Gallery Wall" is taking shape beautifully. You have already seen four different Indian folk paintings that I have painted for the gallery wall. Here is the fifth one, Warli painting of Maharashtra. 

I love and admire all Indian art forms but warli is the one that gave me lots of opportunities to enhance my skills, to interact with different creative and intellectual people and to excel in the creative field.

I had made this Warli painting three years ago. After I published the images of my First Warli Painting, one of my readers from the USA found a certain part of the painting so moving that he wanted me to paint and sell that painting to him. I painted the same and sent him happily. Below is the image of that painting. 

After that, I received another request from one of my blog readers to paint warli painting on her balcony walls and that was quite an interesting, adventurous and fun project. You can check out the complete project of Warli wall painting here. Below is the image of that warli wall painting. 

Warli is the simplest and beautiful Indian art form. It is Introduced by warli tribe of northern Maharashtra. Warli means "a piece of land" and this art is inspired by nature. Style of the painting is very simple. Only geometrical shapes are drawn to make figures, like circles for head, triangles for body and lines for limbs.  

The theme of warli painting unlike rest of the Indian art forms isn't based on mythology. Instead, it depicts day to day life and celebrations. I chose marriage celebration in a village as the theme of my warli painting. 

Warli isn't complete without some birds, huts, trees, carts and villagers performing everyday tasks like farming, pottery, getting water from the well, feeding chickens, cooking, grinding grains in grinding stone and kids playing around, a complete village scene that gives this art its true essence. 

My collection of various Indian folk paintings is growing fast and I am getting lovely messages, words of praise and encouragement from my dear readers. Thanks to you all for your love and encouragement. 

Keep watching this space for more!!

Have a lovely Sunday!

Indian Art Gallery Wall: Madhubani Painting | Luxury Home Decoration 2019

Hello dear readers!! 

We bid adieu to our beloved Ganesha yesterday and the day was filled with a flurry of activities. But somehow I managed to write this blog as I want to complete this series as soon as possible so that we can do some festive DIYs too. 

Here is my Madhubani painting, the fourth one in my Indian Art Gallery Wall series. You can read the complete story of this Madhubani painting here. 

Madhubani paintings originated in Sita's birthplace Mithila region of Bihar hence these paintings are called Mithila paintings too. In olden days women in the villages used to drew these paintings on the walls. Gradually the paintings started crossing the national and international boundaries and became famous. 

These days it is made on almost all surfaces like clothes, walls, canvases, pots and furniture too. Figures drawn in Madhubani need not be sharp and well defined. Theme mostly revolves around Hindu deities.

I painted it on drawing sheet and chose fishes and turtles as main figures for my Madhubani painting. 

Colours are obtained from nature like the black colour is made by mixing soot in cow dung. But these days acrylic and oil colours are used. Unlike Mural paintings no shading is needed in Madhubani paintings instead, figures are filled with lines and geometrical patterns.
I used natural dyes to fill the main figures though I used acrylic to fill the background.

Did you like it!! Let me know what do you think about my Madhubani painting.
In the evening I will publish the blog on my Warli painting. Stay tuned!!

Indian Art Gallery Wall: Mural Painting | Luxury Home Decoration 2019

Here is the third painting in my Indian Art Gallery Wall series and it's Mural painting.
Many of you were waiting desperately to see it. I had painted this few months ago(Check out here) and sharing it now. Below is the video to watch the tutorial of another Mural Painting I shared on my YouTube channel.

Mural is an age-old art form having roots in Kerala, India. Mural paintings are usually drawn on the walls of temples and churches. Though gradually the paintings made their way into houses too.

Rich colors and delicate designs make Mural paintings awe-inspiring. The theme of the paintings are inspired by Hindu mythology and mainly the figures of gods and goddesses are drawn. Sometimes bird like peacock can also be seen as the main subject. I chose peacock because I have already painted an elephant in Kalamkari, birds in Gond and fishes in Madhubani.

Some main colors that are used in Mural paintings are white, black, yellow, green, red and blue. Each character in the painting is given color based on its virtue. To read more about it click here.  

I drew the sketch first and outlined it with black acrylic color. Then I began to fill color with lighter color first followed by darker shades for shading. I completed this Mural painting in two sittings and totally enjoyed painting it. 

Hope you all liked my Mural painting as much as you liked my Kalamkari & Gond paintings.

I'll be coming up with Madhubani and Warli back to back tomorrow so keep watching this space.

Indian Art Gallery Wall: Gond Painting | Luxury Home Decoration 2019

The deepest craving of human nature is the need to be appreciated. And I would like to thank my dear readers to satiate my craving. Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is definitely not a good thing so I would like to express my deepest gratitude to all of you for making my blogging journey all the more special and beautiful. I got an overwhelming response when I announced that I am creating an "Indian Art Gallery Wall" and posted first painting in this series in my previous post. In case you missed going through that post here is a link for you. 

Here is the second painting in my Indian Art Gallery Wall series and it's Gond Painting.

Gond art is a famous art form of central India i.e. Madhya Pradesh. Gondi or Gond Tribe are Dravidian people and they are the second largest tribe in central India. In Dravidian language "kond" means "green mountains" and it is where the word "Gond" comes from. 

Gond paintings depict local flora, fauna and gods. Celebrations, rituals, everyday life and nature is the main theme of this art form. Dots and lines are the main characteristics of Gond painting. Hence I chose to draw birds and used lots of lines and dots to fill the figures. 

First, I drew the design on the canvas and then filled the shapes/figures with solid colours. Next was the fun part of filling the shapes with lines and dots in different colours. 

Bright colours used in Gond paintings impart beauty to the paintings and I used them in abundance to make my Gond painting striking. 

Did you notice the branches forming a shape of a heart and giving shelter to two little birdies inside it. That's my favourite part of the painting. What did you like the most in my Gond painting!!

UPDATE

If you are looking for the Gond Painting video tutorial then click here. Below is my hand-drawn Gond Design in printable format for all those who can't draw.

Below are some images after I filled color in it. 

In my next post, I will be coming up with the paintings I have already painted some time ago. Stay tuned!! 

Till then you can check out the images I share on my Instagram account.