2019 – Posted in: Daily News – Tags: art form, fani, odisha, paintings

Pattachitra paintings

For: Preliminary
Topics covered: Painting, Design & Techniques, Themes

News Flash

Cyclone Fani teared down artists’ village in Odisha. Many pieces of art (especially Pattachitra, a traditional cloth-based scroll painting) in heritage hub have been damaged.

Pattachitra Paintings

Pattachitra style of painting is one of the oldest and most popular art forms of Odisha.
The name Pattachitra has evolved from the Sanskrit words patta, meaning canvas, and chitra, meaning picture.
Pattachitra is thus a painting done on canvas, and is manifested by rich colourful application, creative motifs and designs, and portrayal of simple themes, mostly mythological in depiction.
The Odisha Pattachitras are known for its intricate designs and was given the GI tag in 2008.

Categories of Paintings

Paintings on cloth or ‘Patta Chitra’
Paintings on walls or ‘Bhitti Chitra’
Palm leaf engravings or “Tala Patra Chitra’ or “Pothi, Chitra’.

Popular themes of paintings

The theme of the Pattachitra paintings are mostly based on Hindu Mythology and inspired by Jagannath Sanskruti.

Thia Badhia – depiction of the temple of Jagannath.
Krishna Lila – enactment of Jagannath as Lord Krishna displaying his powers as a child.
Dasabatara Patti – the ten incarnations of Lord Vishnu.
Panchamukhi – depiction of Lord Ganesh as a five-headed deity.

Preparation

Making the patta is the first thing that comes in the agenda, and the painters, also called chitrakars, go about their work in preparing a tamarind paste, which is made by soaking tamarind seeds in water for three days. The seeds are later pounded with a crusher, mixed with water, and heated in an earthen pot to turn it to a paste, which is called niryas kalpa. The paste is then used to hold two pieces of cloth together with it, and coated with a powder of soft clay stone a couple of times till it becomes firm. Soon as the cloth becomes dry, the final touch of polishing it with a rough stone and then a smooth stone or wood is given, until the surface becomes smooth and leathery, and is all ready as a canvas to be painted on.

All colours used in the Paintings are natural and paintings are made fully old traditional way by Chitrakaras that is Oriya Painter.

Source: The Hindu

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