A patachitra artist from the Pingla block in Paschim Medinipur district taught students of a city school the art form that has been a source of livelihood for generations in her village.
Rupsona Chitrakar, 28, who learnt patachitra from her grandmother and father, comes to Kolkata to spread the knowledge of the art form among urban school students.
Chitrakar conducted a three-day workshop recently at Sushila Birla Girls’ School for students of classes VI to VIII.
The fifth-generation artist taught students how to draw, how to extract colours from flowers and how every patachitra tells a story.
“My daughters are learning from me but I want to take it to a wider group outside our village. The students are showing interest in the art form,” said Chitrakar.
What Class VIII student Mugdha Agarwal found most interesting was how the artist narrates a story through patachitra.
“It is a unique art form where the patachitra depicts a story and the artist also sings a song,” said Mugdha.
Chitrakar said that during the pandemic, they used patachitra to spread awareness about protocols like hand-washing and maintaining distance.
Traditionally, patachitra is used to spread awareness against child marriage, trafficking and other social issues, she said.
Often, lack of access to information or an artist results in a lack of awareness about the art form.
Maybe the children will not travel to Pingla to learn this art but a workshop in their school will help generate interest among them, said a teacher.
“We chose patachitra to create awareness about this art form among our students. They will learn about it and learn how to appreciate it,” said Koeli Dey, principal of the school.
In the workshop, Chitrakar told her audience that in patachitra, colours are put first and then the outlines are drawn in black.
“The last step is the jewellery, for which we usually use white. Patachitra has a technique and pattern that have to be followed. It is not like any other painting where we put colours as we like,” she said.
The work produced over the three-day workshop was exhibited in the school.
“They may have seen some of the paintings in fairs but we made it accessible by bringing it to school. The work the girls did was put up for their parents to see,” said Rubena Chatterjee, co-curricular coordinator of the school.