The Warli region of Maharashtra is where Warli, one of the earliest types of Indian folk art, first appeared. Warli paintings are traditionally painted on the red ochre walls of huts. The materials used in Warli paintings speak directly to the circumstances of village life and the local environment: cow dung from the animals that provide sustenance, rice paste from the nearby paddies, and charcoal from the fires that are essential to life. The Warli only uses white paint, which is applied to the wall using a bamboo stick with one end chewed to create a flexible paintbrush. White paint is manufactured from rice flour, water, and gum. The paintings have an ethereal quality due to the way the rice pigment appears to glimmer in the huts’ dim half-light.
