Gond Painting

About Artist

The most striking feature of Durga Bai’s paintings is their ability to tell a story. Her forms are mostly drawn from the pantheon of the Gond Pardhan community. Durga Bai also enjoys painting folktales. For this she is grateful to her grandmother who told her lots of stories. Durga Bai’s work is rooted in her birthplace, Burbaspur, a village in the Mandla district of Madhya Pradesh. Durga was six years old when sitting beside her mother, she learnt the art of digna, the traditional designs painted on the walls and floors of houses during weddings and festivals. Durga enjoyed the whole process, from plastering the walls with cow dung, to collecting clay of different colours. Her paintings were outstanding, and her skills were always in great demand. Durga remembers the harvest festival Nawakhal. When the crop was abundant, there was rejoicing. But the harvest was not always good, and although her parents tried hard to ensure that their children did not go hungry, their efforts were often in vain. Sitting before the wall that was her canvas however, young Durga would forget her troubles, engrossed in her floral patterns while her five siblings played.