Playful Wall Art

Playful — 19 museum-grade prints that set the mood. Aipan is the ritual floor- and wall-art of the Kumaon region of Uttarakhand, made traditionally by Kumaoni women with white rice-paste (biswar) drawn by fingertip onto a geru — red-ochre earth — ground. Holi, the spring festival of colour, is played across the hills with thali plates of gulal and pichkari sprays; in Kumaon it also carries the Holyar singing traditions of baithki and khari Holi. Makhan Chor — the butter-thief — is the most affectionate of the Krishna childhood leelas: the infant Krishna and his friends raid the hanging butter pots of Gokul, building human ladders to reach them, while Yashoda chases after with mock anger. Cheriyal scrolls come from Cheriyal village in Telangana's Siddipet district, painted for generations by the Nakashi artist community on a signature red ground and unrolled by travelling balladeers who sang the Krishna leelas to village audiences. Cheriyal scrolls come from Cheriyal village in Telangana's Siddipet district, painted for generations by the Nakashi artist community as long narrative cloths unrolled by travelling balladeers. Traditionally the scrolls carried epics and caste-origin legends; contemporary Cheriyal work has stretched the same flat-red grammar to everyday Telangana life — markets, streets, festivals.

Updated 22 Jun 2026