A Morning of Chitari Wall Painting

The experience

You'll sit beside Prakash in his sunlit veranda studio as he grinds pigment from stone and shows you how a single hog-hair brush can outline a temple deity or a ship in full sail. By afternoon you'll have painted your own panel in the flat, luminous colours that once decorated every Chitari household shrine in the village.

Why this matters

Chitari painting is one of Goa's oldest surviving folk-art traditions, historically used to decorate temple chariots, wooden toys, and household shrines, and only a handful of families still practise it.

Cultural background

The Chitari community takes its name from the craft itself — chitr, meaning picture — and for generations supplied hand-painted lacquerware, toys and ritual panels to temples across Goa and coastal Karnataka.

Meet the practitioner

We're still verifying a practitioner for this experience — check back soon.

Schedule

Gallery

Grinding natural pigments

Prakash outlining a temple motif

Finished Chitari panels drying

Photographs from this experience will replace these panels once available.

Before you arrive

• · Wear clothes you don't mind getting paint on
• · No prior drawing experience required
• · Bring a scarf or cap if sensitive to sun in the open veranda

Frequently asked

What people say