Here is an experience that is relaxing and rewarding at the same time!

Mural Painting is believed to be advanced from the ritualistic ‘Kalamezhuthu’, drawing forms of Goddesses with colour powders. The early murals are found in caves, palaces and temples scattered around south India. Traditionally the artists used natural colours, brush made out of a grass and a surface prepared with lime, tender coconut water and other similar material.  The paintings are inspired by ‘Dhyana Shlokas’ or the verses describing the religious texts such as Bhagavad geetha or Mahabharatha(m). The characters such as Gods, Goddesses, demons, ‘Yekshis’ or humans appear in a very stylised form in the murals. The curly style is followed even in the sky, trees, flowers, animals and other decorations filled as the backdrop of every painting.

You will start with drawing different types of eyes, ornaments used on the charecters, flowers and so on.  This initial stage is about mastering the components of the paintings. Later you will learn to wash them with yellow and  draw the lines with red, then fill spaces with green or red and finally finish with black lines.  The shading is an interesting process.  In a mural painting class time passes in a jiffy. You will be using pencil, paper, canvas, water colour or acrylic colours for the lessons.

As with every Indian art form Mural Painting is also about improvisation. Once you master the technique, who knows, you might have a different perspective on what you paint as an artist. We know artists who have adapted mural style for their paintings. Though the subject can be a modern village of Kerala, the style remains traditional mural!