What's the price of India's artistic heritage?

Originally Published Here

Well, that depends who you are? If you are an artist schooled in the traditional ways of creating complex and layered paintings on handmade canvas the price is pretty steep.

"A 2/3.5 ft Krishna Leela painting takes more than 20 days," says Catterfly's master Pattachitra artist Bhaskar Mohapatra. After years of labouring to create these intricately detailed paintings, one of which was India's official gift to former French president Francois Hollande in 2015, Mohapatra has been advised by doctors to not strain his eyes.

This gently spoken artist (seen here with daughter Bandana) with more than 40 years experience and a clutch of honours haven't had the luxury to take a break. The pandemic and the resultant lockdowns have had a severe impact on his livelihood. Hardly anyone visits his hometown, a quaint and bustling artist's village called Raghurajpur in Odisha.

Art is a way of life for artists like Bhaskar Mohapatra whose lives continue to revolve around the 12th century Jagannatha cult and the traditional rituals passed down generations of Mohapatras (Maharanas), the community of chitrakars who have been painting complex mythological stories on ‘patta’ or cloth canvas.

Change is not easy though Bhaskarji, like his counterparts, has been experimenting with various mediums to attract more buyers. Covid hit these artists hard and it took good Samaritans like IFS officer Dipika Bajpai to create @PattachitraP Twitter handle to facilitate sale of paintings during lockdowns. Catterfly's online teaching assignments have also come as a boon to Bhaskarji and his family.

After months of uncertainty, life seems to be looking up for Bhaskarji and his talented daughter Bandana when we caught up with them for an?‘Open House on Pattachitra’?recently. Their modest home in Raghurajpur with pretty pink walls is filled with elaborate paintings featuring?Jagannath,?Krishna?and tales from Ramayana. Interspersing the traditional paintings were delightful craft items with Pattachitra motifs. The collection includes miniature Jagannath wooden temples with idols, brightly painted coconuts and betel nuts (supari), bottles, kettles, paper masks and a variety of animal figurines. (See More)

The slow trickle of demand for natural colours have enthused the artists. “We set aside 5-6 days in a month to create colours in bulk,” said Bhaskarji, holding up a hingula mineral stone used to make red pigment. “It takes 2-3 hours to turn 100 gm stone to extract a small goli-sized red pigment,” he said.

The artists also make their own canvas – old saris stuck with tamarind seed-based gum and readied with chalk powder and rubbed smooth with stones. Now, Bhaskarji is ready to ship traditional gum, colours and canvas to those who are interested.?While hingula, haritala (yellow) and Ramraj (blue) are procured from markets in Puri or Bhubaneswar, white is painstakingly made from conch shells procured from the local fishmonger. “It takes at least 45 minutes. Otherwise, the colour wouldn’t be bright,” explained Bhaskarji.?

For Bhaskarji art is not something that is done with deliberate practice any more. He remains unassuming. No wonder even his students were unaware that his Tree of Life (above) now hangs at élysée Palace. “I don’t have any reference for making paintings. I make from my mind,” he says.