In her paintings, Mandal depicts scenes or activities from daily life and creates her own narratives drawing inspiration from stories told by her mother, from whom she also learned the practice of Mithila painting. She remembers being told stories from a variety of settings in her mother’s life, happenings such as at old time fairs, during nights of Diwali or while working in fields.
These stories enrich the artist’s imagination, enabling her to introduce whimsical details into the works besides other elements traditionally used in Mithila painting as a form of intervention. Before switching to paper, Mandal used to paint on mud walls in her home, an earlier medium from which Mithila painting developed, around three decades ago.
Madhumala Mandal is a painter who lives and works in Danusha, in the outer Terai region of Nepal. She is a part of the Jankapur Women’s Development Center (JWDC) that works to preserve and promote Mithila arts while empowering women and their traditional cultural practices.
Taking fish and vegetables to town
Acrylic on Lokta paper
2019
A well of death in a funfair
Acrylic on Lokta paper
2019
A woman repairing road with an extractor
Acrylic on Lokta paper
2019
Designed & Developed by: Curves n' Colors | Visual identity by: Wkshps
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