Warli – Birds in Spiral Flight

Description

• Warli painting is a beautiful Tribal art of Maharashtra, traditionally created by the tribal women.
• Tribals are the Warli, Malkharkoli, Kathodi, Kokana, Dhodi tribes found on the northern outskirts of Maharashtra. Tribal people express themselves in vivid styles through paintings, which they execute on the walls of their house.
• The most important aspect of painting is that it does not depict mythological characters or images of deities, but depict social life. Pictures of human beings and animals, along with scenes from daily life are created in a loose rhythmic pattern.
• Warli paintings are painted white on mud walls.
• The visual energy of the Warli painting is attained through line drawings or cultivating land, colour is not the main criteria. Individual artists have received recognition the world over, and in recent years the medium of these paintings has transferred to paper, and cloth layered with cowdung paste which produces the characteristic natural and dull background with the motifs painted white.
• The paintings are beautifully executed and resemble pre- historic cave paintings in execution and usually depict scenes of human figures engaged in activities like hunting, dancing, sowing and harvesting. It is claimed that the Warlis carry on a tradition stretching back to 2500 or 3000 BC.