Usually the Warli paintings are done during the marriage ceremony and they call them as “Lagnacha chauk” meaning marriage paintings. The painting is sacred and without it the marriage cannot take place. Their respect for nature is from the most gigantic to the smallest creature and plant. The figures and traditional motives are repetitive and highly symbolic. They communicate through their paintings and their life style and passion for nature are depicted with utmost details. Triangular humans and animals with stick-like hands and legs, geometrical designs with rows of dots and dashes are drawn on the mud walls of the huts of tribals. In Warli paintings it is rare to see a straight line. A series of dots and dashes make one line. The artists have recently started to draw straight lines in their paintings. From the depths of the painting spring a variety of activities with humans, animals, and trees. The subjects found in these paintings are wedding scenes, various animals, birds, trees, men, women, children, descriptive harvest scene, group of men dancing around a person playing the music, dancing peacocks, and many more. One of the famous Warli paintings is the marriage “Chauk” - a painting made at the time of marriage. The women called savasini meaning married women whose husbands are alive, paint a “chauk” or a square on the walls. Warli paintings are strangely ascetic, unlike other folk paintings of India which consist of myriad primary colors in such abundance. Instead they are painted in white on an austere brown surface decorated with occasional dots in red and yellow. This first impression of sobriety is countered by the ebullience of the themes depicted. These are remarkable in their intensely social nature. They look outwards, capturing the life around and by implication, the humanness of living. Men, animals and trees form a loose, rhythmic pattern across the entire sheet. This results in a light swinging and swirling movement, describing the day to day activities. In doing so, they seem to be seeking communication among themselves and with the outside world. It is believed that these paintings invoke powers of the Gods. Simply painted on mud, charcoal and cow dung based surface with rice paste for the colour white, the art form deals with themes that narrate their social lifestyle and activities. The loose rhythmic movement that each painting suggests adds life to the paintings. Warli paintings are strangely ascetic, unlike other folk paintings of India which consist of myriad primary colors in such abundance. Instead they are painted in white on an austere brown surface decorated with occasional dots in red and yellow. This first impression of sobriety is countered by the ebullience of the themes depicted. These are remarkable in their intensely social nature. They look outwards, capturing the life around and by implication, the humanness of living. Men, animals and trees form a loose, rhythmic pattern across the entire sheet. This results in a light swinging and swirling movement, describing the day to day activities. In doing so, they seem to be seeking communication among themselves and with the outside world. It is believed that these paintings invoke powers of the Gods .
