Tanjore paintings- Rich heritage of a small city Tanjore

Tanjavur or Tanjore is a small city in Tamilanadu, famous for Brihadeeswarar Temple, one of the largest temples of India. Tanjavur art / paintings originated from this city. Tanjavur paintings are known for its richness in color and ornamentation. The paintings are embellished with semi precious stone and thin gold sheets.
Themes used in Tanjore paintings majorly include, life of Krishna. Nowadays many artists use different themes like Shiva, Vishnu, Laxmi etc. Not only painting with colors, also embossing technique is used in Tanjore paintings.During my visit to Chitrasante 2016  I could capture some images of Tanjore paintings. Each painting was unique.
Here sharing the photos of the paintings exhibited:
The below painting is on theme Krishna’s life.

Tanjore painting with Krishna theme

Another showing Rasha Krishna.

Radha-Krishna- Tanjore painting

As I have written, Though most of the Tanjore paintings are on Krishna’s life, nowadays artists are trying different themes. Here is one such painting:

Tanjore painting – Devi(Goddess)

And the richest God 🙂 Venkateshwara (Balaji):

Venkateshwara- Tanjore painting

As real gold foil is used in Tanjore paintings,these are very expensive. The small sized ones are affordable:

Small sized Tanjore paintings

Tanjore painting- Parrot

The below paintings show the artists creativity, mirror with Tanjavur painting:

Mirror with Tanjore painting

I had learnt this art a few years ago and here is the painting I made.
Though the  making of Tanjore painting requires guidance from an expert, I will share tutorial in coming posts, for enthusiastic art learners.

Until then,

-Ranjana