Madhubani Paintings

Madhubani painting comes from the Indian villages of Madhubani and Mithila in Bihar, and are the exclusive monopoly of women artists, passing down for generations from mother to daughter. Home made natural colours are obtained from plant extracts like henna leaves, flower, bougainvillea, neem, etc. These natural juices are mixed with resin from banana leaves and ordinary gum in order to make the paint stick to the painting medium. Now colours in powdered form mixed with goat’s milk are also used. However, black continues to be obtained from the soot deposits by the flame of diya, dissolved in gum. The colours are usually deep red, green, blue, black, light yellow, pink and lemon. Hand made paper is washed in cowdung. Once the paints are ready, two kinds of brushes are used - one for the tiny details made out of bamboo twigs and the other for filling in the space which is prepared from a small piece of cloth attached to a twig.