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In the previous two articles in this series, we discussed the traditions that gave rise to Patachitra as an indigenous art style. In this article, we’ll look at the materials that make up a good, authentic, and beautiful piece of Patachitra’s artwork.
The list of the most basic materials used to make Patachitra are:
- Thick white cotton fabric
- Tamarind seeds
- Rice flour
- Soapstone in powder
- Coarse-grained and polished stones
- Coating powder resin
The patachitters are made of natural colors. These, in turn, come from natural materials. The materials used to make the natural colors are – mango fruit, vermilion, red ocher, orpiment, indigo, green leaves, shell, lamp black (soot), ‘Hartala’ stone, ‘Hingulal’ stone. Vermillion is powdered to give it a vermilion red. The conch shells form a white powder. Black lamp is used for black. Yellow is obtained by drying and pulverizing a ripe mango. Yellow can also be made of orpiment. Indigo obviously deals with creating blue colors. You can also use powdered rocks of other exotic colors. For example, the ‘Hartala’ stone is used to create yellow colors, and the ‘Hingulal’ stone is used to create red. In the early centuries, domesticated animal urine was also used to create shades and colors!
After all the powders of different colors are obtained, a gum resin solution is used to make a paste of the desired colors. Traditionally, elephant apple gum (‘kaintha’) is used. You can also use white resin-based wood glue – however, natural colors change when mixed with colored adhesives – only reverting back to their original shade after they are completely dry. A clear synthetic glue substitute has recently been used to obtain the correct colors when painting while providing long-lasting shades.
The brushes that were originally used were made of a variety of natural materials. The hair of rats and mongoose are used to make thin brushes, while the thicker, thicker brushes are made of buffalo hair. Artists also use kiya plants to sketch thick lines.
Recently, various substitute materials have been used. For example, the base used today is mostly silk – that’s because it degenerates less over time. Traditional thick cotton fabric was susceptible to weather damage. Also the brushes used are no longer the natural variety – although the best artists still used traditional materials. Recently, the resin powder used to create the final protective coating has been replaced by a more accessible synthetic varnish. However, it is not used when painting on silk. Therefore, the use of varnish has almost disappeared.
In the next article we will look at how the Patachitra artist makes an image from these raw materials.
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Source by Surajit Ray