Owl Family Madhubani Painting

Madhubani art is a style of Indian painting, practiced in the Mithila region of the Indian subcontinent. This painting is done with a variety of tools, including fingers, twigs, brushes, nib pens, and matchsticks, and using natural dyes and pigments. It is characterized by its eye-catching geometrical pattern. Madhubani paintings mostly depict people and their association with nature and scenes and deities from the ancient epics.

Natural objects like the sun, and the moon, and religious plants like tulsi are also widely painted, along with scenes from the royal court and social events like weddings. The origins of Madhubani paintings are quite unknown. However, it is believed that King Janak, ruler of the Mithila Kingdom in the 8th or 7th century BCE, had asked to develop these paintings in order to capture the moments of his daughter Sita’s wedding to Prince Rama (of the Hindu epic – Ramayana).

These paintings were usually created by women on walls and floors of homes during festivals, ceremonies, or special occasions. Madhubani paintings were done using colors extracted from nature. As a part of household activity, women prepared colors sourcing them from flowers, leaves, and wild berries. The main colors used in Madhubani paintings are the natural colors: yellow, orange, red, blue, and green. However, I like using additional colors such as lemon yellow, mustard yellow, orange, red, sky blue, navy, purple, brown, ochre, and green.