Dillip Maharana
Pramod Maharana(Brother)
Art Form:
Pattachitra
Email Id:
dillip7@gmail.com
maharana.dillip7@gmail.com
Contact No:
09438639973
07008029360
09778970677
Shop Address:
At Dandasahi, Post - Birapratappur, Ps - Chandanpur, Dist - Puri (Odisha) 752012
Award: State Award - 2016
Note: The folk paintings of Orissa have flourished around the great
religious centers of Puri, Konarak and Bhubaneswar. Traditionally the
painters are known as 'chitrakars'. Their painting, the 'pattachitra',
resembles the old murals of that region, dating back to the 5th century
BC. The best work is found in and around Puri, especially in the village of
Raghurajpur. Pattachitra is a traditional craft, where the artisans delicately paint
on primed cloth or 'patta' in the finest detail. The 'chitrakars' (artists)
prepare, what looks like a hard card paper using layers of old Dhoti cloth
and sticking them together with a mixture of chalk and tamarind seed
gum, which gives the surface a smooth leathery finish, especially after it
is rubbed with a conch shell. The theme is sketched with a pencil, then
outlined with a fine brush using vivid earth and stone colours obtained
from natural sources, like the white pigment prepared from conch shells,
yellow from orpiment, red from cinnabar and black from lamp soot. After
completion, the painting is held over red hot charcoals and lac mixed with
resin powder is sprinkled over the surface. When this melts, it is rubbed
over the entire surface to give a coating of lac.
A recent modification in Pattachitra paintings is the division of the
Patta into a row full of squares with the high-point of the story in the larger
centre square and various events portrayed in the other squares.
Themes usually depict the Jagannath temple with its three deities -
Lord Jagannath, his brother Balabhadra and sister Subhadra and the
famous Rath Yatra festival. These paintings were originally substitutes
for worship on days when the temple doors were shut for the 'ritual bath'
of the deity. Many Pattachitra paintings are from the ancient Indian texts
based on Vishnu and Krishna. The paintings are of various shapes and
sizes.