Rare painting techniques by Odisha Pattachitra artist stir interest

Raipur (Chhattisgarh) [India], January 20 (ANI): An Odisha Pattachitra artist who uses hand-made canvas and colours made from sea stones and mountain rocks that have come down from ages besides strict conformation to storytelling techniques has featured at a painting camp organised in Raipur.

The painting camp based on Ram Katha was organised at the Art Gallery located on the premises of the Culture Department in the state capital. Awardee painters of different styles from six states across the country have arrived here to participate in the camp. Kalidas awardee Prahlad Maharana (54) from Odisha also participated in the camp. Maharana is an Odisha Pattachitra painting artist. Maharana said, “The paintings we make are based on the Shiv Puran method. A painting workshop has been organised here for which I have arrived. In this workshop, out of the seven sections in Ramayana, we have to make the painting of the first section, which is the ‘Balakanda’.”

“We do Odisha Pattachitra painting, its speciality is that this painting should be done in a way, that means there should be a story sequence wise in the painting so that when one looks at the printing, they can get to know the whole story,” Maharana explained.

Giving details about the method and technique, he said, “We prepare the canvas of the painting by ourselves. We boil the cotton cloth with tamarind seed powder and paste two cloths together and then make it dried. After that, we prepare the canvas by applying tamarind seed on both sides and rubbing it with the stones.”

“Besides, the colour we use is different and it is not available in the market. We prepare the colours from the rocks of the mountain, like yellow colour is made from Pihuli, red colour is made from Hingul and white colour is made from the conch that is found in the sea. The colour is used with a Kobit Glue (Kobit is a kind of tree which contains Bael-like fruit and glue) which brings shine to the colour,” he added.

“The colour looks like the acrylic colour but it is not the acrylic colour, it is stone-derived colour, and it gets spoiled if mixed with water. Painting made with this colour does not get spoiled for 100 years. When our Guruji taught us painting, he told us to first learn how to mix the colour and how long it has to be rubbed so that the colour becomes good,” Maharana added.