Rangoli Artists Forum

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Comment by Chetan on June 5, 2010 at 9:55pm

Free Stall Space at India International Art Fair
India International Art Fair, 2010,will be held in the world renowned centre, at Pragati Maidan New Delhi. The art fair will be held in the air conditioned Hall No 14 from 9th -12th September,2010.

The good thing is India International Art Fair is open for artists also .They can take up their own booth space.

India International Art Fair to sponsor artists for the free booth space and will be the biggest fair to happen in 2010 in which both artists and art galleries can take space to exhibit the artworks.
For more details visit : www.indiainternationalartfair.com

Comment by AnA on April 14, 2009 at 7:36pm

interested!......

Comment by Gabriela Ene on April 11, 2009 at 9:58pm

Visit art gallery 7 stones

Comment by Neelam on March 2, 2009 at 2:57pm

“Rangdeep Kala Sanch” is a team of rangoli artists from New Mumbai started in 1989. Since then our group has organized many rangoli exhibitions at different locations attracting flock of people including media. Collection involves contemporary type rangoli pictures on different subjects such as portraits of world known celebrities, figures, landscapes, seascapes & still-life.

Comment by Neelam on March 2, 2009 at 2:53pm

"Rangoli" has its origin from distant Indian culture. Rangoli is portraying variant designs made from colored powder.
Different kinds of material are used to create Rangoli designs, such as grains, lentils, flowers, salt, rice flour, colored powder etc. To make rangoli pictures, specially processed dry colored powder is used & available in more than 22 different colors & shades.
It takes around 10 to 12 hours to make one rangoli picture of 6ft. X 4ft. size. An exhibition is a collection of around 20 to 25 rangolis held in spacious & enclosed places to avoid interference of dust & wind.

Comment by Ajit Vahadane on March 2, 2009 at 11:34am

Websites for Rangoli
http://www.swastikrangoli.com/
http://www.varnamela.com/
http://www.ikolam.com/rangoli
http://www.kamat.com/kalranga/rangoli/
http://www.marathizone.com/marathi/categories.php?cat_id=67
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rangavalli
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rangoli
http://www.theholidayspot.com/diwali/rangoli.htm

Comment by Ajit Vahadane on March 2, 2009 at 11:29am

Rangoli Designs
Rangoli is the popular floor art of India. It is an auspicious art of decorating courtyards and prayer halls in India drawn mainly by women and girls. Some women use rice flour to draw a rangoli which is the traditional medium to be used while others use sandstone or limestone powder. The designs are then colored with various colored powdered dyes. Although this floor-art is known as Rangoli commonly in many parts of India, it is known as Kolam in Tamil Nadu, Muggulu in Andhra pradesh, Rangavalli in Karnataka, Poovidal or Pookalam in Kerala, Chowkpurana in Uttar Pradesh, Madana in Rajasthan, Aripana in Bihar and Alpana in Bengal.

The colorful tradition of rangoli-making dates back to the Indus Valley Civilization (2500 B.C). Rangolis were often drawn with coarse rice flour since it served as a food source to nature's little critters like ants and crows. Rice flour is seen as an offering to Lakshmi, the goddess of rice and wealth. The goddess has the power to attract prosperity and to prevent poverty from entering the home. In this site you'll find all kinds of small and advanced rangoli designs which are made for various occasions.

Comment by Ajit Vahadane on March 2, 2009 at 11:28am

Origin
The origin of rangoli painting is traced to a legend recorded in the Chitralakshana, the earliest Indian treatise on painting. When the son of a Kings high priest died, Brahma, Lord of the universe, asked the king to paint the likeness of the boy so that Brahma could breathe life into him again. This is how, it is believed, the first painting was made. Also, the son of the king painted a portrait of a girl whom the son liked very much, although the king would not let his son see her. Rangoli also became a form of self-portraiture for women.

Another popular story is that God, in one of his creative episodes, extracted the juice from one of the mango trees as paint, and drew the figure of a woman so beautiful that it put the heavenly maidens to shame.

Chola rulers made extensive use of floor paintings. They are known by different names in different parts of the country; Alpana in Bengal, Aripana in Bihar, Madana in Rajasthan, Rangoli in Gujarat, Karnataka and Maharashtra, Chowkpurana in Uttar Pradesh and Kolam in Kerala and Tamilnadu, Muggu in Andhrapradesh. Some of these, especially many of the North Indian ones like Aalpana more often refer to floor painting with traditional wet color, rather than the powder rangoli more conventional in south India.

Rangoli in front of house during Pongal

Like Hindu and Buddhist Mandalas, the reason for using powder or sand as a medium for creating Rangoli (and its resulting fragility) is sometimes thought to be a metaphor for the impermanence of life and maya.

Comment by Ajit Vahadane on March 2, 2009 at 11:27am

Description
The motifs in traditional Rangoli are usually taken from Nature - peacocks, swans, mango, flowers, creepers, etc. The colours traditionally were derived from natural dyes - from barks of trees, leaves, indigo, etc. However, today, synthetic dyes are used in a range of bright colours. The materials used for Rangoli take on either a flat appearance, when a uniform monolayer of powders are sprinkled or a 3-D effect when different sized grains like cereals, pulses etc are used either in their natural colouring or tinted with natural dyes are used. Some artists use the 3-D effect for borders alone while others create beautiful designs using grains and beads entirely. Coloured powder can be directly used for fancy decorations, but for detailed work, generally the material is a coarse grained powder base into which colors are mixed. The base is chosen to be coarse so that it can be gripped well and sprinkled with good control. The base can be sand, marble dust, saw dust, brick dust or other materials. The colors generally are very fine pigment podwers like gulal/aabir available for Holi or colors (mentioned above) specially sold for rangoli in South India. Various day to day colored powders like indigo used for cloth staining, spices like turmeric, chili, rawa, rice flour, flour of wheat etc are also variously used. Powder colors can be simply mixed into the base. If the base is light like saw dust, it can be used to make floating rangoli on the surface of stagnant water. Sometimes saw-dust or sand is soaked into waterbased color and dried to give various tints. However that probably cannot be used on water. If a rangoli is to be made on water, the color should preferably be insoluble in water.

An elaborate rangoli that looks like a painting

The designs are symbolic and common to the entire country, and can include geometrical patterns, with lines, dots, squares, circles, triangles; the swastika, lotus, trident, fish, conch shell, footprints (supposed to be of goddess Lakshmi), creepers, leaves, trees, flowers, animals and anthropomorphic figures. These motifs often are modified to fit in with the local images and rhythms. One important point is that the entire pattern must be an unbroken line, with no gaps to be left anywhere for evil spirits to enter.

Originally Rangoli was done in small patterns — 2 feet square — but now entire floor areas of rooms and hotel foyers are covered in intricate detailed designs. Traditionally, such floor decorations were done only on auspicious occasions or festivals. But today, any occasion is good enough — weddings, birthday parties, opening ceremonies, etc. In the deep South and South West of India and Kerala, flowers are used to create floor art.

Rangoli can be improvised into diverse visual art forms. For instance, it can be used to make elaborate images that look as if they were painted (some examples of such Rangolis.Sprinkling powder by hand is a very laborious and difficult process, however, and it's difficult to render fine details - meaning the image must be quite large.

In Indian cultures, all guests and visitors occupy a very special place, and a rangoli is an expression of this warm hospitality. In particular, the Diwali festival is widely celebrated with rangoli, since at this time, people visit each other's homes to exchange greetings and sweets.

Rangoli also has a religious significance, enhancing the beauty of the surroundings and spreading joy and happiness all around.

Comment by Neelam on February 26, 2009 at 9:26am

I request all artist who have interest in Rangoli art to join this forum