Banna’s PHAD painting workshop
In keeping with
our promise to bring artisans painters directly to customers, we organised a 4
day PHAD painting workshop on the 26th and 27th of May
and 2nd and 3rd of June.
“ PHAD “ is a
traditional form of painting from the Bhilwara region of Rajasthan and is a
tradition which is more than a 1000 years old. These paintings are essentially
pictorial representations of the legends of “ Pabuji” and “ Devnarayan “ who
are local deities of Rajasthan. “ PHAD”
basically denotes a large scroll of cloth on which these paintings are made.
These scrolls usually 36ft X 36ft in size were used by priests or “ Bopa’s “ as
they are commonly known to tell the
stories the paintings depict.
PHAD paintings
have traditionally been made by the designated Joshi family of painters from
the early ages. Prakash Joshi – a
leading PHAD artist from this family was here in Bangalore to conduct this
workshop with Banna Creations. Prakash
Ji is a simply unassuming man who paints for a living and has earned fame and
recognition as a traditional PHAD painter. He learnt his skill from his Father
at a young age and has been painting for the last 20- 25 odd years. Breaking
away from family tradition which dictates that no one outside the Joshi clan
should be taught this skill, Prakash Ji also runs a small painting school
called “ Chitrashala” . He conducts various painting workshops here from 2-4
day introductory ones to full- fledged painting courses that last for 6 months.
At Banna
Creations it has always been our endeavour to bring artists to the forefront
and provide them with a platform to showcase they skills, meet and interact
with customers as well as demonstrate and teach their art forms. Our four day PHAD painting workshop was one
such endeavour. Conducted in the heart of the city on MG road, we found that there were people from several
varied backgrounds, age groups and skill levels who expressed an interest and
decided to join the workshop. This workshop was simply aimed at introducing
PHAD painting to our audience, and to take them through the nuances of the art
form, the method of painting, the usage of natural colours and the fine
brushwork involved. The build- up to the workshop involved a large amount of
marketing activity including introducing the art form to people, showing them
the possibilities of the painting and finished samples. For those familiar with
art and painting this was an opportunity to learn something new and different …
For those trying painting or anything close to it for the first time this was
an adventure and then there were also a few other participants for whom this
was a chance to do something different outside of their routine daily
schedules. Some participants even came to learn so they could go on to teach
PHAD painting basics to other people … Overall an interesting and eclectic mix
of people! Two of our participants are
worth a special mention – Mrs. Sundari
Kannan who was our oldest participant being a senior citizen. She was also the
fastest and picked up all techniques introduced to her with great ease and with
a certain sense of familiarity. The
other participant was a lady who came thinking this was a mural art workshop
that would require her to draw lines, take measurements etc, not realising that
PHAD paiting entailed something else all together ! She however stuck on, gave
the workshop her best and also went away with a finely completed piece of
artwork.
Day 1 and Day 2
of the workshop left most people almost anxious about whether or not they would
be able to learn the basics of PHAD painting given the technique and immense
detailing involved. While actually drawing and painting on cloth with natural
colours seemed like a distant dream, they were given sketch books and pencils
to practice line drawings of the various figures, faces etc. Prakash ji would
draw the figure in everyone’s sketch book in turns and they had to copy the
same in order to get the shape and technique right. Another unique aspect of
this method of teaching was that the participants were not allowed to use
erasers. This not only perfects the hand but also enables more practice and
therefore perfection in each line. Unique yes ! But also a little tiresome for
some. Starting with face profiles, and
they body shapes and going on to Horses and other animal depictions, musical
instruments etc .. everything was practised with pencil in a sketch book. This
method even left some people wondering if they would be able to perfect the
technique, draw and paint on cloth and complete one painting. Interspersed with
this was Prakash Ji’s vast knowledge of the history of the art form which he
discussed at length with the participants. He talked to them about the history
and beginnings of PHAD painting, its uniqueness, technique etc. Another
important aspect was the details he shared about the preparation of the cloth
used for painting as well as the making of natural colours. Each of the colours
used are from natural extracts and each colour and source has its own unique
name. Also a laborious process involved in finding making and mixing of the
colours for final use.
On Day 3 of this
workshop, Participants were given a 12”X12” piece of cloth to start work on
their painting. With two days and whole weeks practice in between this was
going to be a cake walk for some and an uphill task for a few. The Challenge was to pick out sketches and
copy them onto the PHAD cloth with pencil first and then start painting with
colour. All the practice put into line drawings came in handy here ! Once the
sketches were complete, the interesting, core and fun part was to start using
natural colours to paint. Each colour
mix which was in the form of paint was mixed with a small quantity of water to
a consistency just enough to enable painting.
All seven basic colours of PHAD painting were going to be used starting
with orange and green. Prakash ji explained that there was a sequence to the
use of colour as well and those parts which needed the least colour were worked
on and filled first. 
The colours dried
up almost immediately after being applied leaving no room for smudging or
mistakes.
This process of
painting and filling colour continued on to Day 4 as well. As a final touch to
the paintings, all figures, animals, instruments etc also need to be outlined in
black ( Made from soot) using a fine almost needle like brush. This was again almost as challenging as the
line drawings themselves. This is an important and necessary part of the PHAD
painting process and all paintings uniformally have the black outline as well –
however large or small.
The 4 day workshop
which had everyone engaged and engrossed came to an end with a promise for more
in the near future. Apprehension and anxiety gave way to a sense of
achievement. A Fitting end indeed !
Learn and read
more about PHAD paintings and Prakash Joshi at www.phadchitrakari.com
Prakash Joshi is a National award winning PHAD
artist and this workshop with Banna was his first in Bangalore.
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