Village Life and Imagination in a new collection of Warli Paintings from India.
The forested hills of central India are host to some of the indigenous tribes such as the Gond and Warli people that inhabited the subcontinent. This February, 2026, we spent some time in Central India, in Madya Pradesh and Karnataka. The Warli's are mostly found in Maharashtra which is slightly further west but influence of their art has spread beyond that state.
Two elegant trees connected with a spider's web above villagers carrying baskets & farming implements. Buy here.
The Warli people paint the walls of their houses with scenes of village life and the natural world. These paintings are delightful, simple in the execution but full of life and vitality, humour, and they give a graphic insight into the preoccupations and activities and spiritual life of the Warli.
Courtyard wall in Badami village, Madya Pradesh.
We saw these paintings in many places. Some years ago the Warli started painting on canvas as a means to show their art and culture to the wider world and to sell their work and support their way of life. Traditional cultures and societies throughout the world are challenged by increasing modernity.
Wall painting in Mandu, Madya Pradesh
A coiled snake divides this painting into two halves; villagers are working in the fields in one half, in this half they seems to be partying. Buy here.
For many years whenever we’ve been to India we’ve tried to find Warli paintings to bring back for the Silk Road Gallery. So this year we've got a new collection and we’re starting to introduce some of them to the website and the showroom. They are painted on calico or canvas cloth which has been coated with a thin layer of mud, usually the reddish brown colour of the earth of central India.
Detail of a Warli tree painting on black cloth with villagers sawing wood, making baskets, cooking, smoking & carrying a baby. Buy here.
Occasionally we get other background colours and this year we’ve got some pieces on black and also a dark green background. The actual painting is done with a brush that is in fact the chewed end of a twig and the white paint itself as a rice and milk paste.
Detail of another tree painting, this time on a green background, with a peacock & numerous birds; village life below. Buy here.
Like the Gond paintings, these Warli paintings give you a vital and wonderful insight into another view of the world. Take a look now before their traditions are subsumed by the increasing encroachment of modernity.
To see & learn more about Warli Paintings follow this link.