Warli Paintings

Warli paintings are one of the profound forms of Indian folk paintings. Warli paintings belong to the Warli tribe, the largest tribe of Maharashtra. While there is no proper historical evidence of its origin, yet it can be traced between 2500 B.C. and 3000 B.C. in the Neolithic Age. These paintings are a pictorial representation of the rural life of the Warli tribals. They depict day-to-day activities, customs, beliefs, and different moods of the tribals.

Warli style of painting has a simple form of art expression. Even a novice can easily comprehend the deep message of the painting. Just like rangolis are used to decorate houses, these paintings were drawn by tribal women to decorate the walls of their mud houses.

Warli folk paintings are similar to pre-historic cave paintings. The earlier themes depicted hunting but as the Warli tribe shifted from hunting to agriculture, the themes got changed accordingly. They are drawn in white on an earthen-colored base. Warli painting designs have dots and lines, and geometrical-shaped figures. Unlike other forms of folk paintings, they are not colorful.

Warli painters do not derive their inspiration from Indian mythology. They simply depict an event of their life, such as marriage, dance, and harvesting. Therefore, every painting has diverse forms of nature, such as people, trees, animals, the sun, and many more. A wedding ceremony is a popular theme of the painting. Even, the tarpa dance is commonly portrayed. Tarpa, is a trumpet-like instrument. It is shown that the tarpa player is surrounded by drummers and men and women are dancing to the tunes.

Today, these paintings are depicted in modern and decorative style. They are drawn on a piece of cloth and handmade paper. They have become a popular home decoration item in the cities. There are many clocks, earthen pots, wall hangings, and teak trays decorated with a warli painting. You can buy authentic paintings from any handloom or painting exhibition. They are also displayed on the corridors of main markets by street vendors.

If you want to learn how to do warli painting workshops, then you need to look for classes focusing on the warli painting art for beginners.

If you are interested in becoming a professional painter in warli form of art, then you need to join any of the professional certified warli painting course in Mumbai. You can also take up certificate diploma warli painting courses in Mumbai.