AMIT DOMBHARE

Amit Dombhare is a Warli artist. He has learnt this form of art from his father Mahadev Dombhare.

The Warli are an indigenous tribe who live in the mountain and coastal areas of the Maharashtra-Gujarat border.  They are traditionally nature worshipers, with their own animistic beliefs and traditions.  These beliefs have brought about the creation of a truly unique and beautiful art form.

Warli art is unique in that it does not depict deities or myths, but society itself.  Shapes form a large part of their artwork, with the most rudimentary being the circle, the triangle and the square.  The circle represents the heavenly bodies, the triangle the mountains and trees while the square represents land.  Their art seems almost stark in comparison to most other lushly coloured Indian traditional paintings, consisting only of white pigment as paint against a dark (traditionally mud) backdrop. These paintings are usually drawn on the walls of their huts, which are made of branches, earth and cow dung.  Bamboo sticks are used to apply the paint, which is usually made from a mixture of rice paste, gum and water.  However, the images shown here are drawn on cloth with white poster paint and cow dung or red mud.

Amit Dombhare lives and works in Maharashtra.