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Devendra Kumar Jha and Family

"I was born in 1969 in Jitwarpur, Bihar - an eastern state in India. My mother, who is a state award winner in Madhubani, the painting style that I use, was my mentor. Under her supervision and guidance I have emerged as an artist capable of creating these paintings.

"In this school of art we do not make preliminary sketches, nor is our work planned. We simply pick up our brushes and create. A vivid and creative imagination is essential in this style of art, for while motifs may be similar, no two paintings will ever be found to be the same."

Mithila, (in Bihar) is a scholastic and cultural center in India that traces its lineage of arts from epic times. Mithila paintings – alternately called Madhubani paintings – are a folk tradition kept alive by women in northern Bihar. They depict events from epic, mythology and traditional designs on their floors and walls of their houses using crushed wet rice and natural colors. From this age old tradition stemmed the practice of drawing Mithila paintings on a canvas of hand-made paper or pure mulberry silk fabric using natural colors and fabric dyes. Brushes, sharpened reeds and pen nibs are used.