Folk Painting

The largest state and the heartland of India, Madhya Pradesh is highly traditional place recognized for its magnificent monuments, colorful festival and beautiful architecture. Apart from that, the state renders an amazing charm through the skills provided in the folk paintings especially the wall paintings of Bundelkhand, Gondwana, Nimar and Malwa. The Folk paintings of Madhya Pradesh represent the living expressions of people and the inherited socio-cultural ambiance of the area. The famous festival paintings like Karwa Chauth, Deepawali, Ahoi Ashtami, Nag Panchmi, Sanjhi etc. in the state are largely done by the women at home using simple home-made colors. Furthermore, women in Rajwar community are specialists in the painting ‘Lipai’, which includes linear patters over mud plaster base. On the other hand, Pando & Satnami communities make linear designs similar to a woven fabric. The Bhils and Bhilala tribes of Madhya Pradesh are known for the Pithora paintings in which Horses, elephants, tigers, birds, gods, men and objects of daily life are painted in bright multicoloured hues. The Malwa, Nimar and Tanwarghar regions of Madhya Pradesh are known for their Mandana wall and floor paintings in which red clay and cow dung mixture is used as base material to plaster the surface is used to make the white drawing on it stand out in contrast.