Contemporary art has often been a common choice for parents and kids alike when it came to attending art workshop or classes. In recent times however it appears that people’s attention has been diverted by the introduction of tribal folk art to young minds. And interestingly it is picking up really well.
Siddhi Naik, who started her Art Studio, Porvorim, introduced warli and madhubani painting workshops during the summer vacations. Having completed her Bachelor’s in Fine Arts at the Goa College of Fine Arts with specialisation in portrait and graphics, she herself was exposed to folk art forms like warli, madhubani, saura, pahadi etc in her syllabus. “We were given assignments to create our own simple forms using the folk art technique and not copy the forms as it is,” recalls Naik. The artist decided it would be an interesting as well as a learning experience for her own students to learn and understand the folk lifestyle.
Warli, which is a folk art of Maharashtra created by the tribal women, was mainly used to decorated mud houses or floors smeared with cow dung. Women drew simple forms which depicted the folklore and the social life of the tribal community. Compared to madhubani, warli has simpler forms with colours prepared using easily available colours. On the mud walls, the white colour of the rice flour gives a very bright contrast. Other natural colours came from simple ingredients like yellow from haldi, green from the leaves etc “The motive is to decorate using simple forms like a fish or human figures, flowers etc. The women would spend lots of time decorating their houses as it was said to bring in prosperity,” explains Naik. In her art classes, she keeps things simple. “For kids, I insist on using black album paper or white paper and accordingly use contrasting colours. Before starting, I brief them about the history of the art form so that it is easier for them to understand and express it on a medium,” she states, adding that students use simple stationery like 0-0.2 brushes or black gel pens to do the outlines.
Madhubani on the other hand, involves intricate designs with outlines drawn with black ink and drawings filled with vibrant colours.
Sheetal Kamat, who has been conducting art classes for the past 17 years in St Inez, says that in madhubani, a wooden stick called peeli is used. This stick is slightly slit in the between to insert a piece of cotton or cloth tied to it. The same is used to color. For the outlining too, the thin wooden stick is sharpened on one side to make it a nib. The nib is dipped in black ink. Even the colours are prepared on the spot using plant parts. The handmade paper is treated with cow dung to avoid being eaten up by the ants. “When I first conducted a madhubani workshop a few years ago, I showed the technique used by the tribes using the peeli. Now, people want to learn simple and easier ways to learn the art,” says Kamat. She adds that upon understanding the concept, many students now do it on paper using poster colours.
“Although warli is mainly done using black ink, students like to use the technique with vibrant colours and I do not wish to restrict their expressions,” briefs Sheetal Kamat, who specialised in illustration during her Bachelor’s of Fine Art in Applied Art at the Goa College of Arts, Panaji. She built her knowledge about the tribal art forms by referring to various books on madhubani, warli, saura which are gaining popularity through the prints on dress fabrics, wall paintings, crockery etc. “That’s exactly what students do after learning the technique. I had a student who learnt the technique and went home and did it on a greeting card.
We teach them the technique and leave the application part of it at their discretion. And it’s not just kids. Even adults are interested in repeat workshops on tribal art forms,” says Naik.
