Radhakrishna Tanjore Painting – Its Exclusive Features

Art is famous for presenting the beauty of everything in its finest and pristine form. It is used as a medium to showcase the magnificence of nature, entities, deities and whatnot. If there is one form of Indian traditional painting that portrays the beauty of the massive fervently then it is Radhakrishna Tanjore painting. No other traditional art method has till now been able to signify the lords in a way better than Tanjore does. Every painting prepared using this style is beyond hesitation the celebration of the splendour of the divine with the effervescent colours and gold foiling.

The exclusive value of the Tanjore painting can be understood by its multiple stages of creation

Stage1

Tanjore paintings are created on canvasses which is a plank of wood (formerly wood of the jackfruit tree was used, now it's plywood) with a coating of cloth pasted on it using Arabic gum. The cloth is then equally coated with a paste of limestone (chalk) and an obligatory medium and let to dry. When the canvas is prepared, the artist then draws a complete sketch of the theme of the painting. A paste, made of limestone (chalk) and a necessary medium, is used to make a 3d effect in embellishing and ornamenting the theme of the painting using a brush.

Stage2

Real Tanjore gems of diverse hues are stable in selected areas like pillars, arches, curtains, thrones, dresses, jewellery etc. 22ct gold leaves are used to shield the printed areas and then the colours are applied to the canvas. Screening and other complicated colouring work are carried out in this stage. Extra gems are fixed in the later stages if necessary.

Stage3

When it dries the painting is surrounded by imported Italian Flexi-glass and framed using the anticipated frame pattern.

Exclusive features of the Radhakrishna Tanjore painting

• Wooden plank- These Indian traditional paintings are created on the wooden plank recognized as Palagai Padam. The word Palagai denotes wooden plank and Padam means picture. Not too many paintings are crafted on a wooden base, thus, this is what makes Tanjore paintings exclusive.

• Rich colours- The colours used are generally primary and bright. No dull colours are used while creating these paintings. Red, green and blue, yellow are the colours that are commonly used for colouring the background or the clothing of the subject of the painting.

• Golden foil- Golden foils are what makes these paintings different and easily recognizable from the rest of the painting styles. Thanjavur paintings organize golden foil to make the ornaments, and dresses and exaggerate the background.

• Precious stones- Limestone is used as the material to paste or engrave the valuable gems and stones on the wooden plank. The stones and gems are used to knob the dresses and the ornaments along with the gold foil.

• Natural colours and Dyes- Earlier the colours used were extracted from the vegetables but now natural colours are seldom used while making these paintings. Though, this can still be considered one of the exceptional features of the original Thanjavur paintings.

Maintaining Your Tanjore Painting

The materials used in our paintings are of exclusive quality and hence they can be kept in upright condition for generations, with very little care. A gentle wiping and dusting are all that is needed to keep the piece as attractive as a new one.