ARTIST BIOGRAPHY: Remni Mandal

Remni Mandal

I live in the household of my husband in the village of Deuri Parbaha. Our household of 20 people consists of my father-in-law, his four sons, their wives and ten children. My husband and our six children live in one room. 

I am thirty years old and was married when I was fifteen. In the village where I was born I saw the paintings my aunt made on mud walls of buffaloes and other animals. So for my wedding I painted all the walls myself from what I'd noticed from my aunt. At the time of the wedding people asked who had painted the walls, and then afterwards for weddings people would come to ask me to paint their walls and pay me with some rice or chapati.

I used to work with my husband in fields which belong to the big landlords. We would earn half of the harvest so in this way we had rice, corn, eggplants and other vegetables. Now in the rice harvest season my husband earns four kg. of rice per day. 

I started painting at the center after a friend who worked there gave me three pieces of paper to paint some samples on. Typically my pictures show people doing farm work. You can tell my paintings because they often have parrots, crows and squirrels which you see in the mango groves nearby. My paintings usually show the activities of both people and animals: the birds are busy eating and the people are busy picking or taking care of goats, buffalo, cows, and chickens. 

I show women as I think of them, some as they are now and some as they used to be. Women used to wear saris with silver coins attached and a nose ring called a "biluki" -- I still show them this way. Some of the old women you still see smoking a hookah. 

Corn Painting: In this painting you see corn enjoyed by people, squirrels, crows and parrots. We grow corn twice a year and usually have it for six months. We roast or pop the corn for snacks, or we grind it for cornmeal to make bread or mix with rice. We feed our goat and our buffalo the leaves.

Mango Painting: We don't own mango trees but everyone collects fallen  green mangoes in the mango groves or children bring them home after
knocking them down with sticks. Then in a wide ceramic pot I mix spices and quartered mangoes and set them to dry in the courtyard. When they are dry we put them in oil and keep them to have with our food the year round.