Patua Work
A
remarkable art of unrolling the mythological or religious stories on the canvas
from centuries, is done by Patua artisans from the rural area of West Bengal. “Patua”
or “Chitrakar” in Bengali means “Painter” and “Pat” means “Scroll”.
Artisans
wander from village to village with their bag full of scrolls, singing the
story they have unleash with the storm of brushes and vibrant colours on the
scroll in return they earn their livelihood in the form of getting money or kinds from the villagers. With our
current era changing over the period of time and society being affected due to illiteracy,
social causes such as Aids, Population, Unemployment, and globalization, Patua’s
have adapted the social causes in their scrolls, and are not limited themselves
for depicting mythological or religious or Hindu Idols.
Patua
Scroll paintings are done on hand made paper backed with cloth. This indigenous
art is done by using original plants & minerals to create the paint; turmeric,
vermillion, and burnt rice. Sap of the bel (wood-apple) fruit is used as
mordant; charcoal or burnt rice for the black, betel for the red, a fruit from the Nilmoni tree for
the blue colour, etc... In order to fix the colours, they add a tree resin which
they first melt. Sometimes artisans use a piece of bamboo, sometimes carved, is
placed on each extremity of the scroll and is used to roll and unroll the
painting which is done with vegetable colours.
Vegetable dyes colours used for Patua paintings.