Also known as Godhna, Maithaili and Chaitra figure painting, this folk art originated in villages of Madhubani and Mithila in Bihar. The rural women painted their imagination on the walls, floors and doors of their mud houses with the belief that God would visit their house and bless them. Initially the painting was restricted to their homes but since the famine of 1964, people of the village took up painting for livelihood. Resultantly, the Madhubani painting extended to satin, sarees, dupattas cloth, canvas and handmade paper. Predominantly, Madhubani paintings are traditional and deal with the Hindu deities, nature and social events of the time.

Madhubani painting technique is a dexterous art and adheres to ancient, time-tested methods. Simple raw materials that are easily available in the village are used like bamboo sticks wrapped with cotton to form a brush. This brush is dipped in natural colours obtained from vegetables, cow dung, spices, leaves etc. The outline is given with double lines and the gaps between these two lines are filled with cross or straight lines. There is no shading work used here. Geometrical figures and vibrant use of colour are the most strking features of Madhubani paintings.

The principal of the college of art and crafts (Patna) Anunoy Choubey said, “The world of Madhbani painting continues to evolve and influence other forms of contemporary art today. I was invited to Mauritius to set up the department, there was tremendous enthusiasm. It was a new journey for Madhubani painting crossing over boundaries and culture”. Several Madhubani artists today, like Manisha Jha and Pushpa Kumari, have interpreted the art in a contemporary context. Their subjects have changed based on the society today. Many exclusive art galleries for Madhubani paintings are now found both in India and overseas. In Japan, there is one ‘Mithila Museum’, which has over 850 Madhubani paintings.

This style of painting evolved in the Mughal rule and was patronized by the Golconda Sultanate. In India, the art originated in Andhra Pradesh, in two ancient cities of Masulipatnam near Hyderabad and Srikalahasti near Chennai. The Masulipatnam style has a Persian influence and is done in intricate and delicate forms and motifs. Their subject includes natural elements like flowers, leaves trees etc. While the Srikalahasti style shows influences of Indian temples. The subject of these paintings are narratives from Ramayana, Mahabharata and the Puranas.

Kalamkari painting, that literally translates into pen craftsmanship, is an art form that is done using fine bamboo pens on fabrics and block printed using natural vegetable dyes. The procedure is a long and tedious one that includes treatment of the fabric first, followed by dyeing and hand painting, post which the fabric is treated again. The fabric is washed after each application of colour, so the fabric can undergo as many as twenty washes. Many effects are obtained using cow dung, seeds, plants and crushed flowers. 

In 1957 a government-run Kalamkari training center was established to revive the art and keep it from dying. Currently there is an increased interest in the art form by designers, NGOs and entrepreneurs. As a result, a range of products in kalamkari cloth are now created and available for sale at exhibitions and boutiques. Dutch influence on Kalamkari art led to making bed covers, curtains and garments as well. Today, the J.J.School of Art in Mumbai, is trying this art form on Silk Ikat and Pochampally Silks. Recently, Kalamkari technique, has been sued to depict Buddha and Buddhist art forms. The city of Hyderabad, celebrates the art annually by medium of ‘Kalamkari Festival’, a platform for all the artisans to sell their artworks.

Globally acknowleged, Phad painting is a vibrant Indian folk art of Rajasthan. They have a very unique style and pattern and are most noted for the use of pulsating colours that bring the space to life. Their themes are historic in nature, depicting stories of the bravery of famous heroes like Prithviraj Chauhan, Goga Chauhan, Amar Singh Rathore, Papuji etc. The specialty of the painting is the two dimensional figures and neat arrangement of pictures in segments. An interesting aspect of the Phad paintings are the traditional singers named Bhopas, who narrate and sing the theme depicted by the painting, when these paintings are moved from place to place.

This art form is outlined in blocks and filled with colours made using natural vegetable dye on hand crafted fabric called ‘Kadhi’. The colours are used in a specific order to create specifc effect. They start from orange-yellow to brown, bold greens and blues, red and black to create the illusion of one actually entering the story depicted and surpassing time.

Paata Paintings or patachitra, is a devotional art form worshipping Lord Jagannath, originating from indian state of Orissa. An ancient art practiced for ages, the origin can be traced back to the time of the development of the shrine of Lord Jagannath in Puri. This folk art includes wall paintings, palm-leaf etching, manuscript painting and painting on cloth, both cotton and silk. Originally, these paintings were only done by the original artist caste of Orissa, mahaptras or maharanas. Specially treated cloth or paata was painted and used for ornamentation of innermost sanctum deity. The themes are usually religious, mythological, and folklore. Needless to say, most of the motifs are centred around tales from the Krishna Leela and Lord Jagannath. 

The colours used for the painting are obtained from natural sources like vegetable, earth and minerals. The painting, when done on cloth, requires preparing of the canvas as a smooth and semi absorbent surface to absorb paint better. First the cloth is coated with a white stone powder made of chalk followed by a coating of glue prepared from tamarind seeds. The process gives fabric a lot of tensile strength. The unique aspect of the painting is that artisans refrain from using pencil or charcoal to make preliminary drawing, instead directly makes a rough sketch using his brush and light colours. After that, painting is completed using main colours and fine strokes in black giving the effect of pen outline. In the last step, the painting is held over charcoal fire and lacquer is applied to achieve a water resistant, durable and shimmering surface. 

These days the art has been extended to different surfaces like wooden boxes, ceramic bowls, tassar silk, outer shells of the coconut, wooden doors etc. They are even working to create painted wooden toys, using animals and birds in their motifs. This art form is gaining enormous popularity, especially with tourists all round the world.  

One of the most popular folk art of India is the minimal art of Warli painting. The word warli comes from Warla which means piece of land. Originating from a scheduled tribe of India, Warli or Varli, the art has a basic and uncomplicated vocabulary of a circle, square and triangle. The circle stands for sun and moon, triangle stand for mountains and trees while the square is a human invention, representing a piece of land. The central motive of each painting is a square in which resides the Goddess of fertility, Palaghata.

At first, the warli paintings were done on the walls of the huts. These walls, made of earth and cow dung, had a ready ochre background for painting. The uniqueness of the painting lies in the use of only white colour for painting. The white colour was obtained from rice paste and water with gum and bamboo sticks were used as brush. The paintings revolved around themes of the life of the warli tribe which included hunting, fishing, farming, festivities, dance and nature. The beauty of the painting lies in the simplistic representation of humans and animals as stick figures, two triangle joined at the tip, which also symbolized balance.

Needless to say, the art has evolved over time and gained immense popularity, in India as well as overseas. Warli painting has become an integral part of home décor with it being painted on paper, vases, mugs, bedsheets and apparel. Popular Warli artist Anil Vangad, has changed his subject of paint to represent social concerns.