Ajanta Paintings
| Ikat
| Kalamkari | Nirmal Paintings |
Folk Paintings
|
KALAMKARI
 Practiced widely in the
villages in and around Machilipatnam, in coastal Andhra Pradesh, is the intricate work of
Kalamkari. This is a craft of hand painting the fabrics using pointed bamboo kalams or
pens.
The Art involves freehand drawing and
application of vegetable dyes on the fabric with the kalams. The dyes used are drawn from
natural sources like the Madder roots and other dye roots.
The fabric for the painting is first
processed by washing with water and then drying it for two hours. It is then soaked in
water mixed with myrobalm (karakkai) powder and buffalo milk. This
once again is dried in sunlight to get it ready for sketching and drawing. Kalamkari also
entails the use of blocks to create a myriad of designs, made by the craftsmen with utmost
intricacy.
The motifs bearing a close affinity with Persian
sources, range from traditional to present day scenario. It having been patronised by
the temple authorities, Kalamkari once was purely inspired by the Indian Mythological
characters. However, today though the specialisation in figurative work continues,
Kalamkari is generally aimed at the home furnishing market mostly applied on dupattas, bed
spreads and wall hangings. Of late the art also is found to adorn the household
funiture like lamp shades!
Machilipatnam and Srikalahasti
are the main centers of Kalamkari production. Kalahasti involves a free hand brush drawing
 of the outline while
the Machilipatnam style involves block printing with the interior spaces being filled with
vegetable dye that is used with Kalam. In Andhra Pradesh, Block-printed Fabrics come from
Machilipatnam, Chirala, Vijayawada and Tuni. |
