The Warlis or Varlis are an Indian Scheduled Tribe. These indigenous people live in the talukas of Thane, Nasik and Dhule districts of Maharashtra, Valsad District of Gujarat[1], and the union territories of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu[2]. They have their own beliefs, life, customs and traditions, which is the part of the Composite Hindu Culture. The Warlis speak an unwritten Varli language which belong to the southern zone of the Indo-Aryan languages, mingling Sanskrit, Marathi and Gujarati words. The word Warli is derived from warla, meaning "piece of land" or "field".
Their extremely rudimentary wall paintings use a very basic graphic vocabulary: a circle, a triangle and a square. The circle and triangle come from their observation of nature, the circle representing the sun and the moon, the triangle derived from mountains and pointed trees. Only the square seems to obey a different logic and seems to be a human invention, indicating a sacred enclosure or a piece of land. So the central motive in each ritual painting is the square, the cauk or caukat (pronounced "chauk" or "chaukat"); inside it we find Palaghata, the mother goddess, symbolizing fertility. Significantly, male gods are unusual among the Warli and are frequently related to spirits which have taken human shape. The central motif in these ritual paintings is surrounded by scenes portraying hunting, fishing and farming, festivals and dances, trees and animals. Human and animal bodies are represented by two triangles joined at the tip; the upper triangle depicts the trunk and the lower triangle the pelvis. Their precarious equilibrium symbolizes the balance of the universe, and of the couple, and has the practical and amusing advantage of animating the bodies.
The pared down pictorial language is matched by a rudimentary technique. The ritual paintings are usually done inside the huts. The walls are made of a mixture of branches, earth and cow dung, making a red ochre background for the wall paintings. The Warli use only white for their paintings. Their white pigment is a mixture of rice paste and water with gum as a binding. They use a bamboo stick chewed at the end to make it as supple as a paintbrush. The wall paintings are done only for special occasions such as weddings or harvests
(Source - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warli#Warli_painting)
The Warli paintings essentially depict the basic principals of life which are main theme or basis of any tribe. Their major designs include the harvest season,celebration, wedding, rituals and births. The Warli houses also see a pattern in decoration and designs. The Warli art has a special characteristic of representing the humble life of the Warli tribe.
Earlier Warli painting used to be etched out on walls of Warli houses, but nowadays, they are being painted on paper, vases, mugs, bedsheets, apparel too. This art is pretty popular all over India and the world as well. Simple and aesthetic in appeal, Warli Art painting is back and gaining much wanted fame and name.
I was always interested in warli paintings... i made my first warli painting During my MBA days, i learnt it from a dear friend who is a proffessional artist. well that was just a replica of one warli design.
After marraige when i was in Baroda i really got to learn what warli paintng is all about ... i attended a workshop on warli. and since then i m making warli paintings as and when possible. i have tried diff mediums and even colours for these. I will put up the pictures soon.
Here is just a glimps of 2 ATCs i made in warli ... Deepa has already picked these ATCs.
I have used handmade paper and green sketchpen.
