Cheriyal Paintings

The Cheriyal Paintings are thematic paintings from Cheriyal village in Andhra Pradesh. They are done on Khadi cloth which runs as a scroll. This cloth absorbs starch, becomes stiff and thus is suitable base for painting. The themes of the Cheriyal paintings include epic themes from the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, Sri Krishna Bagawatam, Shivapuranam and Markendeyapuraman, village themes portraying the life of the people, their life style and socio-cultural background and festival themes depicting festivals such as Sankranti, Bathukama (Dasara Festival), and Bonalu (Pothuraju). Red is used as the only background colour but in rare cases green or white or shades of red or green or are used. The predominant colours used in the paintings are golden yellow, lemon yellow, pink, blue, green, brown, white, orange and black and various shades of these as based on the design conception. Water colours are used.