Kinnal painted panel
the object
The panel is light for its size. Under the paint it is a soft wood built up with layers of cloth and tamarind-seed paste, which is what temple chariots were surfaced with: strong enough to be carried, light enough to be carried far.
The raised line you can feel with a thumbnail is gesso, drawn freehand before colour. It is the drawing, not an outline added over one. Where it crosses itself the line thickens slightly, and the gold thickens with it.
Colour is mineral and matte. The gold is the only part that moves as you move, and it was laid last, over the raised work only.
- Dimensions
- 420 × 590 mm, 34 mm deep. Hangs from a recessed cleat.
- Material
- Lightweight wood, tamarind-seed paste, mineral colour, gold leaf
- Finish
- Gesso ground, mineral colour, gold leaf laid last.
- Variation
- The raised gesso line is drawn freehand, so its thickness moves along its own length.
- Lead time
- Four weeks.
the tradition
Kinnal craft
Kinhal
A temple-chariot craft, brought down to the size of a wall.
Kinnal craft was made for temple chariots: the enormous wooden vehicles pulled through a town at festival, and the figures that ride on them. The panel is that same craft brought down to the size of a wall.
The ground is built up in layers of cloth and tamarind-seed paste until it is smooth enough to take a line. Raised work is drawn on top of that in the same paste, by hand, before any colour is laid. Gold goes on last, in leaf, over the raised line, which is why it catches light from one side of the room and disappears from the other.
the maker
Suprita
Painter, 7 years, Kinhal.
She paints the borders that older hands in Kinhal leave plain.
This object is not yet for sale.
Join the list and we will write when the first collection opens. Once, and about that.
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