Warli Art
Warli Painting is a beautiful folk art of Maharashtra, traditionally created by tribal women during wedding rituals. The simplicity in its form inspired me to learn this art from Mr. Rajesh Wangad from warli tribe. The challenge was to draw delicate lines closely spaced and getting that natural rhythm in the paintings. The paintings use smart combinations of top and side views of inspirations. To extend my research on this, I also referred the books available on this tribal art, from which I learnt to read these paintings, understand the meaning behind drawing the forms, believes, traditions and culture of Warli tribe.
I tried to use this art form on home decor products that added aesthetic value to them.
I tried to use this art form on home decor products that added aesthetic value to them.
The Warli tribe express themselves through these pictographs, they paint on the walls of their huts. Simply painted on mud, charcoal or cow dung based surfaces with rice paste for motifs drawn with a brush made of twigs. Through their paintings they communicate their social life and love for nature. Men, animal, trees, birds form a loose, rhythmic pattern across the painting. It is believed that these paintings invoke the powers of gods.
These wall paintings use a very basic graphic vocabulary: a circle, a triangle and a square. A circle drawn inspired from nature represents the sun and the moon, while the triangle is derived from mountains and trees. The square indicates a sacred enclosure, the "chouk", for the Palaghata, the mother goddess, symbolizing fertility.
In recent years, the medium of these paintings has transferred to paper and cloth, as these painting have reached to the outside world of urban communities.