About the Artist
After earning a Masters in English literature and briefly working with the UN Mission in Mozambique, Sunanda now lives in Acton, MA, with her two sons and husband. She retains her lifelong association with Mithila where her parents were practicing doctors. She continues to revisit Madhubani periodically, refining her techniques and rediscovering the endless assortment of themes. Additionally, she is now trained in other folk and tribal art forms like Warli (Maharastra), Kalmakari (Andhra), Gond (MP), Patchitra (Orissa) and Phad (Rajasthan), Lippan(Gujrat) and many more. She popularizes the arts via exhibitions, workshops and lectures in the New England area.
Sunanda Sahay grew up in Darbhanga, Bihar in northern India. The region, part of Mithila, lies near the border of India and Nepal and carries a rich pastel of cultural legacy in art and literature. Artistic interests led Sunanda to seek out practitioners of the art from local villages and learn directly from them.
Despite royal patronage, Mithila or more popularly known as Madhubani paintings, have retained their simplistic folk origins. It is a living art and visitors can see lovely murals on the clay walls of Madhubani village homes even today. Sunanda’s works have stayed true to the traditional themes of mythology and social customs, and her style has not deviated from the dense, arching, and brightly colored strokes characteristic of the art. Though a few male artists have received renown in recent years in this art, Madhubani paintings have customarily been practiced exclusively by women.
Sunanda has been painting publicly for over a decade and has held exhibitions and workshops at the Peabody Essex Museum (2007, 2009, 2010), Museum of Fine Arts (MFA), the National Heritage Museum(with Vision-Aid), Boston Childrens’ Museum, Danforth Museum, the Massachusetts College of Art etc. She has also held exhibitions and interactive workshops at public schools and libraries in several nearby towns, including Acton, Lexington, Newton, Lincoln, Weston, Wellesley, and Cambridge, and designed covers for children’s magazines. She has addressed students at Pine Manor college, Wellesley college and other community places.
Sunanda has been teaching students of all age groups(kids to adults) for last several years and many of them have received awards, accolades and recognition everywhere. All her students have been exhibiting their artworks extensively from MFA to many prestigious venues. Sunanda has received the prestigious apprenticeship award from MCC several times to train her students who can carry the legacy.
The paintings have received widespread attention and acclaim, including several juried show selections, and awards by the Fitchburg Art Museum and the Massachusetts Cultural Council. She has been invited several times by Mass General Hospital to exhibit her art for emotional healing of the cancer patients. Sunanda has been involved with judging various art competitions of all age groups in MA and NH.
Madhubani Art
Folk art of Bihar, India
Madhubani, or Mithila, painting is a folk painting of northern India. It is mostly practiced by women in the villages who have passed this art to their daughters through multiple generations. They paint pictures of nature and mythology to depict different events like birth, marriage, and cycles of life. Though this folk art has been practiced for centuries it started to gain national recognition only in the last few decades. Now, art patrons can find Madhubani artists in several cities of northern India, many of whom are experimenting and adapting the traditional styles to modern ethos and medium.
The area of Mithila lies near the border of India and Nepal and carries a rich pastel of cultural legacy in art and literature. Its heritage goes back at least 2,500 years and its celebrated figures include the Buddha and Mahavira. It is also the birthplace of Sita, the central character in Ramayana. Hence, her life stories are frequently depicted in the local art.
The paintings are traditionally based on mythological, folk themes and pastoral symbols. The central themes of most paintings are love, valor, devotion and fertility, though the approach may vary. So it is common to find scenes of courtship and marriages and symbols of fertility and prosperity like fish, parrot, elephant, turtle, sun, moon, bamboo tree, lotus, etc. in prominence. The divine beings are positioned centrally in the frame while their consorts and floral motifs form the background. The human figures are mostly abstract and linear in form.
Even though this art is centuries old, it has preserved its original style and content in its native land of Mithila. Nowadays synthetic colors are used but traditional artists still make their own colors by extracting them from plants. The coloring is of two styles – Kachni (hatching) and Bharni (shading.) Kachni uses delicate fine lines to fill the painting and not much color is used. Bharni (shading) uses solid colors to shade and fill the pictures. It uses black outlines filled with vibrant colors. A variety of inventive patterns are made with hatching and stippling. Even now during birth and marriage ceremonies paintings are made on walls with different symbols like bamboo (lineage,) lotus, and fish. The designs announce the occasion of the celebration and solicit good fortune and divine blessings.
