ART (INDIAN FORMS) > WARLI ART
Warli painting is a style of tribal art mostly created by the tribal people from the North Sahyadri Range in Maharashtra, India. The Warli tribe is one of the largest in India, located outside of Mumbai. Despite being close to one of the largest cities in India, the Warli reject much of contemporary culture. The style of Warli painting was not recognized until the 1970s, even though the tribal style of art is thought to date back as early as 10th century A.D.
It is one of the finest examples of the folk style of paintings. The Warli culture is centered on the concept of Mother Nature and elements of nature that are often depicted as the focal point in most of the Warli paintings. Farming is their main way of life and a large source of food for the tribe. They greatly respect nature and wildlife for the resources that they provide for life. Warli artists use their clay huts as the backdrop for their paintings, similar to how ancient people used cave walls as their canvases.
These rudimentary wall paintings use a set of basic geometric shapes: a circle, a triangle, and a square. These shapes are symbolic of different elements of nature. The circle and the triangle come from their observation of nature. In contrast, the square appears to be a human invention, indicating a sacred enclosure or a piece of land. The central motif in each ritual painting is the square, known as the "chauk" or "chaukat", mostly of two types known as Devchauk and Lagnachauk. Festivals, dances, harvest, folk story, celebration, temple marriage etc. are common scenes depicted in the ritual paintings. Traditionally it is made inside huts that are built using a mixture of tree branches, mud and cow dung. They are made using a sticky paste of rice and water, which is used with the help of chewed bamboo sticks as paintbrushes.
Warli Art is not just an art form, but way of life in Indian villages. It covers day-to-day activities of the village people and is one of the easiest and captivating art-form among Indian Folk-arts. It comprises of common geometrical shapes – lines, dots, triangles & circles, which make learning Warli Art both easy and fun.
