Saturday 5 September, 12-2pm BST (British Summer Time, London, UK)

Virtual Workshop, hosted on Zoom, by Kirit Chitara

The tradition of kalamkari painting (Mata-ni-Pachedi) stretches back eight generations in Kirit Chitara’s family. His father and grandfather earned national awards for their work and now he is carrying on the tradition in his own right.

Mata-ni-Pachedi is the traditional Indian art of painting the image of goddesses. It is a piece of cloth found in the temple with multi-coloured animated images of gods and goddesses, devotees, followers, flora and fauna with a narrative story. The term Mata-ni-Pachedi originated from the Gujarati language, where Mata means ‘goddess’, ni means ‘belongs to’ and Pachedi means ‘behind’. When people of the nomadic Vaghari community of Gujarat were barred from entering temples, they made their own shrines with depictions of the Mother Goddess of different forms on to the cloth. Traditional Mata-ni-Pachedi is a rectangular piece of fabric used as a canopy in the place of ceiling in a nomadic shrine which houses the main mother goddess image at its centre. 


The rectangular fabric is divided into seven to nine columns followed by a narrative format. Maroon and black were the only colours used, with the surface of the cotton material as the third colour.

Outline of the workshop
Introduction to the Mata-ni-Pachedi craft and its historical relevance; Introduction to the style, figures, compositions and layout designs used in Mata-ni-Pachedi. 
The participants will work on paper (as it is not possible to work with natural dye on fabric in 2 hours). 
Demonstration by Kirit Chitara of the process and painting of Mata-ni-Pachedi, followed by a Q&A.

Materials list (not provided)
Sketch book and paper (A3 size)
Pencil
Eraser
Micro pen: sizes 1.0, 2.0, 4.0 (red, black, blue)
Poster colour/Gouache (black, red, yellow, blue, orange, brown)
Brushes: numbers 0, 1, 2, 5.

NOTE: you join the workshop with variants of the materials listed above.

Workshop Cancellation Policy
All places reserved on workshops are non refundable, however, if you let us know you are not able to make a workshop you have booked at least two weeks prior to the event, we will re-advertise your place and refund your fee as long as we are able to sell your place and the workshop is fully booked.

If you require additional information about this workshop please contact Catherine Harris, events@selvedge.org.