Remote-controlled Kalamkari Painting 'Birds on a Tree'

Here a number of birds are being beautifully depicted in the Kalamkari painting and the birds are playing in a tree. The trees are also being painted beautifully. Kalamkari is the art of painting cotton fabrics with a kalam i.e. pen. In this genre of painting a sharp pointed pierced bamboo regulates the flow of colour on the fabric. The popularity of this exquisite form of art crossed the borders of the country during the 17th and 18th centuries. Kalahasti and Machilipatnam in Andhra Pradesh, the nerve centres of this art continue to be beehives of Kalamkari activity. Kalamkari colours are made from vegetable dyes. The cotton gets its beauty from its immersion in milk and resin. Kalamkari paintings are the result of seventeen painstaking steps, using only natural dyes, with numerous washes. The motifs are essentially related to temple architecture and scenes from great epics.