Scenes of Loveliness: Denizens of Odisha’s craft village to amaze tourists with painted houses

There will be the scenes of enchantment all around to greet the tourists visiting Odisha’s Raghurajpur heritage village, as about 150-odd families of artisans in the village are using idle hours of lockdown to paint the facade of their homes in Patachitra folk murals.

Odisha Lalit Kala Akademi has undertaken the initiative to turn the walls and doors of each house into canvas by delegating a five day task of painting folk murals to artisan families. A remuneration of Rs 10000 will also be given to each family in lieu of their handiwork.

The measure is taken to encourage the artisans who have long been facing a hard time due to COVID. Usually the Akademi would invite the artists to the camps organised at Bhubaneshwar but the idea of painting the fronts of houses cropped up in the wake of lockdowns.

Artisans inhabiting the village are skilled in a welter of art forms part of traditional patachitra like tussar painting, paper mache mask making, palm leaf engraving, stone and carving. They are thrilled to have a unique task at hand this time as painting on walls is something they are not accustomed with.

The village usually receives a vast footfall of foreign tourists every year but as the tourism sector is in the throes of pandemic a major source of their earning has been severely curtailed. Pandemic has turned it into a fight for subsistence for many artists in the village. But then Adversity can also be the spur for creativity and with technology and virtual tours they can exhibit their art to a large global audience.