Colours of Mithila

A mother, teacher and a self-taught artist, Vandana Choudhary was always fascinated by the Mithila painting style ever since her childhood days. Now settled in Hyderabad, she dedicates her complete time to painting Madhubaniart bringing a mix of both the traditional and contemporary subjects into her paintings.

"I am doing this artwork since my childhood. But I was not able to continue because of my studies and after that I got married. I got busywith my family and my son," shares Vandana, who did not forget her passion.

She proves that there's no age limit to follow your dream. "In 2014 my only son went for higher studies out of Hyderabad and I was feeling bored and I continued my passion. And I started doing Mithali art for family and friends."

Why Mithila art? She says, "I hail from the Mithila region of Bihar. Visiting my village during childhood, I was always fascinated by the brightly colouredpaintings on the walls with unique features. Little did I know at that time about the history and rich legacy behind these Madhubani paintings and how it would end up shaping my own artistic impulses.

By adolescence I was already creating these paintings and honing and perfecting my craft. As no one in my immediate family was into this art I had to learn it on my own. With no formal training of any sort as well, I can safely say that I am a self-taught artist."

About Madhubani paintings, she says, "There are mainly two types of Madhubani paintings – Bharani, which is predominantly marked by bright coloured images and Kachni, in which the paintings are filled with slanted lines. My style is mainly Bharani as I enjoy playing with colours in my paintings. However, I do dabble with other styles as well and I recently finished a series on the Goddess Sita in Kachni style."

She is presenting 46 works, which are acrylic on canvas and she says, "It was difficult for me to do it on canvas as the colour will get soaked immediately, which is not the same if I do it on a wall or a paper."

This art is like a worship for Vandana, she says, "I believe that I am going to a sacred place and this is my worship." "Apart from the regular motifs associated with this art, which are Hindu deities and scenes from epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata I have experimented and tried to bring new subjects within the scope of my paintings.

One of these is the issue of deforestation that I have highlighted in one of my paintings in which a tree is shown to be weeping as it is being cut. Another issue that I have tried to address is the stigma associated with a woman not being fair complexioned in our society.

Typically, in Madhubani paintings the women are depicted to be extremely fair complexioned, but I've gone against the mold and depicted dusky women as well in my paintings. In this way I've tried to highlight and prove that everyone should be comfortable with their own body image and feel beautiful no matter what complexion they are," says Vandana. The exhibition will launch today at 6.30 pm.