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Namaste to all. Myself Ramesh, Mithila painting from Madhubani, and I am fairly new to this online talking. My question is this. In my work there is the traditional thing. Fish, peacock, the wedding of Shiva and Parvati, kohbar for the marriage chamber. This is what my mother taught me and her mother before. Then there is the simpler work. Small fish, plain border, bright, easy to carry home, and this sells faster. So the galleries and the middlemen, they say to me, make more of the simple one, this is what the customer will buy. I have done it sometimes. Money is money and the house is running. But each time I feel some heaviness inside. So I want to ask the artists here, not the gallery people. Have you ever told a gallery no when they asked you to change your work for the market? What did you say, and did they drop you or not? And if you did change, was it worth it or you regret. One more small thing. I told one gallery in Delhi I will not remove the kohbar line from the border because that line is not decoration, it is for the marriage blessing. He laughed. I still did not remove it. That is my answer, kindly give yours.

Namaste to all ji. I want to ask one thing which I keep thinking about. Myself Ramesh, Mithila painting from Madhubani, Bihar. My son made this account for me. Always I have sold through the cooperative here, and through people who come to our village for the work. Gallery matter is new for me. Some months back I carried three paintings rolled in cloth, took the bus to Patna, and simply walked into a gallery there and asked to show. The man was polite, he looked at everything, and then said email is better, send photos. Only. So I came home with the same three paintings in the same cloth. Now I am confused which way is correct. To walk in and let them see the actual work with their own eyes, or to send photo by email first like a formality. In our tradition the painting is to be seen with hands and eyes, not in a small phone picture. But maybe that thinking is old. So tell me honestly, how do you all do it. Email first, or just go and stand there. And which one has actually worked for you. Tell me I am wrong if walking in is a foolish thing now.

Namaste to all ji. Myself Ramesh, Mithila painter from Madhubani in Bihar. Forgive me if I am not so used to this online talking, my son has set it up for me. My first gallery, many years back, I went to Patna with three paintings rolled in cloth, no folder even, no photographs, nothing. I sat in the office and the lady there asked me, "who is your artist representative?" I did not know such a thing existed. I said, my mother is my representative, she taught me since I was six. She laughed, but kindly, and she kept one painting on the wall for a small show. That one sale fed my family that month. So I am asking: how did your very first gallery happen? Cold email, walk-in with work under the arm, a friend who knew someone, a group show you almost did not apply for? Tell me the real story, not the polished one. I want to hear how it actually went for you.

For two days my son has been photographing my paintings for the website. He has made a white cloth, two lamps borrowed from the neighbour, and he is very particular about the angle. Forty paintings he has done. It is good work and I am grateful, because before this we were only selling through the cooperative in Darbhanga and whatever the buyers who came to the house would take. But here is my difficulty. On the screen, my Kohbar and my Durga all look the same size. The line which I pulled for three days with a squirrel-hair brush looks thin like a hair, and the fish which I made the size of my palm looks small like nothing. A painting is not made to be looked at in a small box on a phone. It is made to be sat in front of. He is telling me this is how people buy now, they will not come to Madhubani to see. Maybe he is right. Still I am thinking we should put one photo where he has kept a matchbox beside the painting, just so the person knows. My mother never measured anything in her life and now I am measuring for a machine. If any of you are selling your work this way, kindly tell me one thing. Do you send the actual size, or the person will understand by themselves?

Myself Ramesh, I was finishing a large piece for a client in Delhi. It depicted the marriage of Shiva and Parvati, very detailed work with natural colours on handmade paper. For weeks, my eyes were glued to the fine lines, the tiny figures. When it was done, the client asked for the final price. I calculated everything – the cost of the paper, the pigments which are becoming costly now, my time spent over many days and nights. When I told him the figure, my own hands started to shake a little. It was a good price, a fair price for the work, but still, it felt very high for me. We are not used to such figures in Madhubani, you see. He paid without any question, thankfully. But I am still thinking about it.

Myself Ramesh, Mithila painter from Madhubani. All my life I sold through the cooperative or when someone came to the house. Tourists sometimes, or people from the city who heard about the village where the painting women are. My son, he is in Patna for his job, he took photos of maybe eight of my pieces, a fish with the lotus, a Durga, two peacocks, some others. He put them on WhatsApp status and also in some groups he is in. I did not think much of it. Now in the last month I have sent six paintings by courier. To Delhi. To Bangalore. To one address in Dubai even, a man whose mother is from Darbhanga originally and he wanted something for his wall. These people never touched the paper, never saw the pigment. They saw a phone photo and they trusted it. This is strange to me. In my market, the buyer wants to see the line work up close, wants to know the colour is natural, wants to hold it. But my son says this is how it works now. I am grateful, truly, but also I am thinking, what if the photo does not show the real thing? I use geru and rice paste and lamp black, the photo cannot show that. But the buyers are happy when the parcel arrives. I do not understand this new way but I cannot argue with the orders. Anyone else selling traditional craft online and feeling this same confusion?🙂

Namaste to all ji. I am Ramesh, Mithila painter from Madhubani, Bihar. My first time sending work to a gallery outside was maybe twelve years back, in Delhi. A kind man there liked the painting but he said, Ramesh ji, the fish and peacock are fine, but the deity figures you can remove, it will sell better to that crowd. I thought for many days. In the end I did not remove. That painting came back to me and it is still hanging in my house, and I am not sorry. But I want to ask honestly, because I am still learning these things. When a gallery asked you to change something in your work, did you do it? And how did you decide? Please tell me your story, small or big, I would like to hear. Some of you may have changed and it was good for you, that also tell, no judgement here.

Yesterday I was filling a fish motif on a new piece and my hand did the fine-line work without me watching. I realised I have drawn the same fish since I was maybe eight years old, sitting next to my mother on the floor at home in Madhubani. Forty-eight years of the same scales, the same curve of the tail, and still the hand remembers better than the mind. Some people ask me why I do not try new subjects, new style. But there is a reason these patterns have lived so long. The fish is for prosperity, the peacock for love and rain. When I paint them I am not just decorating paper. I am speaking to something my grandmother also spoke to. That is not old-fashioned for me. That is the whole point of the work. Only thing I will say is the natural pigment prices now are something else. A good lampblack and the indigo, my God. But you cannot paint a fish with chemical colour and call it Mithila. So we pay. Who else here does work where the pattern was decided before you were born?

Myself Ramesh ji, from Madhubani. I want to ask something from all of you. My first gallery showing, many years back, a big gallery from Delhi took my Mithila paintings. I was so happy, I thought my mother's art is going everywhere now. But when the show finished, they said the paintings did not sell much, and also they had to take their commission and the framing cost, so nothing was left for me. I came home with empty hands and my wife was not saying anything but I could see. I was young and I did not know to ask for anything in writing. I learned after. Tell me, who else had such first experience? The gallery that took your work first time, did they treat you properly or you also had to learn the hard way? I want to know I am not alone in this.

She came to my home, sat on the mat, looked at my mother's old painting of Laxmi on the wall and said, "Ramesh ji, can you make her face a little more... you know, like contemporary? Like Deepika or someone." I said, Mata Laxmi? Like Deepika Padukone? She said yes, why not, we have to keep up with the times. I told her I have been painting Laxmi since I was a boy. In Mithila, the goddess has a certain face. The lotus, the elephants, the gold coins falling from her hand, the proportions of these also are fixed by tradition. You cannot just give her a film star nose and call it Madhubani. She said okay but can you at least make the eyes bigger and more modern. I took the order anyway because my daughter's school fees were due. I painted it the way it should be. She came to collect it and said it looks very traditional only. Took it but I could see she was not happy. My wife said, next time, make her wear sunglasses also.

Myself Ramesh, from Madhubani. For me it was a small cooperative in Patna, this was maybe twenty years ago. The lady running it, she saw my work at a village mela and asked me to bring some pieces. I was so nervous I wrapped them in old newspaper. She took four paintings on the spot and sold two within the week. That small thing changed everything for me, someone outside the family seeing value in it. What about you ji? How did your first gallery happen? Was it a cold walk-in, someone saw you somewhere, or a connection? I want to hear the stories.🙏

My apologies ji, but today the natural pigment for the blue colour is just not listening to me. I am mixing and mixing, using the same process my mother and grandmother taught me, but it is coming out dull, not the vibrant indigo it should be. This is the colour for the peacock's neck, you see, and it must be just so. Perhaps the humidity is too high in Madhubani today? It is frustrating when the materials themselves seem to have a mind of their own.

One of the girls who comes to my house on Sundays to learn, Sunita, she is maybe seventeen. She has been coming since two years, very quiet, never asking anything, only watching my hand when I draw the line for the fish scales. Her lines were shaky for long, I will not lie. Last month there was a small exhibition at the block office in Madhubani, arranged by the cooperative. She sent two paintings without telling me. I came to know only when the secretary phoned me. Both were sold. One to a teacher from Darbhanga, one to a man who works in the bank there. She came on Sunday and put the money in her mother's hand, and her mother did not say anything for some time. I have seen many paintings go from my own house to the walls of people who will never know whose hands made them. But this is different. It is her own money from her own line work. I told her, now you must be regular in practice, this is only starting. But inside I was thinking of my mother, who taught me in the same way, sitting on the floor with the bamboo stick for the brush. Nothing has changed in that room since long. Only the names are new. She is asking me now whether she can learn to do the kohbar on cloth, not only paper. I said yes but cloth is costly and one mistake cannot be removed. Any of you have experience teaching a young student on cloth? I do not want to discourage her by being too careful also.

Myself Ramesh, Mithila painting from Madhubani, Bihar. I do not come from the gallery world at all, so please forgive if my question is simple. My first time showing outside Bihar, it was not a big city gallery. It was a small craft shop in Patna, and the owner was an elderly gentleman. He looked at my work for a long time without saying anything, and I thought he is not liking it. Then he said only this: "Who taught you the fish? The fish is correct." That was all. No talk of price, no talk of exhibition. But that one line stayed with me for years. So I want to ask. Not how you got the show. What is the one sentence the gallery person said to you that you never forgot? It can be the good one. It can also be the one that wounded you, I do not mind. Those stay longer sometimes. Kindly share ji. I think we all carry one such line around.

Myself Ramesh, Mithila painting from Madhubani district in Bihar. I want to ask something to those who have dealt with galleries. My first attempt was not by email at all. There was an exhibition in Patna where I had sent two paintings through a cooperative, and a gallery person saw them there and asked who is the artist. That is how my first proper show came, not by applying but by someone seeing the work hanging. After that I tried emailing some galleries in Delhi, and mostly no reply came. So my experience is: the work has to be seen by eyes. But I know many artists now send portfolio by email only, and some gallerists say never come without appointment. So tell me ji, which way you did it? Email with photos first, or you carried the paintings and went? And for those who walked in, did they see you or send you away? I want to know what actually works, because I am still learning this side of things. 🙏

Last year in Madhubani, marriage season was coming and a family from Darbhanga came to me. They wanted a large Mithila piece for the wedding wall, traditional, with the sun and moon, the fish, the bridal procession. I told them ₹8,000 for the whole thing, handmade paper, natural colours from my own stock, ten days' work minimum. They said they would think about it. Next week I heard they went to a younger fellow in the next lane. He does the work too, learned from his aunt, but he charges ₹4,000. He uses poster colour, not geru and rice paste. And the paper is machine-made. But it is half my price, so they went to him. I am not angry at the boy. He is feeding his family. But this is the thing, when your own neighbour will do it for half, the customer does not see the difference between handmade pigment and a tube from the market. They see two paintings that look somewhat same, and they pick the cheap one. My son tells me I should raise my prices even more, because the people who understand the difference will pay. But the people who understand the difference are fewer every year. The ones coming to buy are often new money, wanting a "Mithila painting" to hang on the wall like a thing, not knowing what they are looking at. So I am stuck. ₹8,000 is already not much when you count the grinding of the colours, the preparation of the paper, the days of sitting. But I cannot compete with ₹4,000 and poster colour. And I don't want to compete that way either. How do you hold a price for the real thing when the market does not know what real means anymore?

My son helped me put some of my paintings on Amazon last year. Small things, mostly, fish motifs, a few Lakshmi pieces for Diwali time. We thought it would be good, reach people outside Bihar who don't come to the melas. Six months now. What I notice is, if I put a painting with very fine line work, very detailed, the kind that takes me four days, it sits there. No sales. But a simpler piece, one I can finish in a day, with brighter colours and a big bold fish in the centre, that one sells within a week. Same size, same paper, same story behind it. I don't understand this. The detailed one has more of me in it. More tradition. But the simple one is what people want to buy. I am grateful for the sales, do not mistake me. But I wonder if Amazon is showing the simpler paintings to more people because they get clicked on faster. Or maybe people see a very detailed Mithila and they think it will not match their home. I am not complaining ji. Just trying to understand. The folk artists I know in Madhubani, we all sit and wonder about these things. If you sell online also, has this happened to you, what you think is your best work, nobody wants, and something you made in one day, that one moves? 🙏

Two months back a shop in Patna approached me, they wanted twelve paintings of peacock and fish for their wall, same size, same border, all to be delivered in five weeks. They said 4,000 rupees per piece, take it or leave it, because "it is folk art only, no?". I did the sum that night on the back of an old paper. Handmade paper comes to near 400 for that size, colours I make myself but still the gum and the stone grinding takes days, and one painting of that size with fine line takes me not less than three days if my eyes are cooperating. Twelve of them in five weeks means I am not sleeping and I am not teaching the girls who come on Sunday. So it was not 4,000 for a painting, it was 4,000 for three days and a piece of my name on their wall. I said no. My son said I am mad, that a shop order means regular income. He is not wrong in the account book sense. But this same shop will sell it to a customer in Delhi for fifteen or twenty thousand and put a small card saying "Madhubani, Bihar" and my name will not be on the card. Here is what I want to ask the people in this group who have gone through such talks. When a buyer says the price is fixed but the quantity is good, do you hold your number and lose the order, or do you name a price for the bulk and keep the fine line thinner, less work, honest about it? I have done both in my life and I am still not sure which one keeps the art alive and which one only keeps the kitchen running. 🙏

I am working on a Madhubani piece for a buyer in Patna, fish pair around a lotus, and everything is fine except one thing. The eye of the left fish. In our tradition the fish eye is a small circle with a dot inside, and the outer line should be drawn in one breath, no joining. I have done it four times now and each time it comes out the same way, slightly heavy on the upper side, so the fish looks sleepy or maybe annoyed, not alert. My mother would have said the hand is thinking too much. The trouble is I cannot correct it by painting over. Paper is handmade, the black is lamp black mixed with gum, and any second coat sits on top like a patch, dull where the rest is deep. So I have to redraw the whole fish. Four fishes have gone into the waste pile near my charpai. My wife has stopped asking. What I am asking myself is whether a small heaviness in one eye is a fault at all, or whether I have been looking at it so long that I have lost the piece. Sometimes we keep only the one wrong thing in front of the eyes and the rest of the painting becomes invisible. If anyone has faced this with fine line work, the point where you cannot tell if it is a mistake or your own hand's character, I would like to hear how you decide to stop.

Namaste to all ji. My first time showing outside Bihar, a gallery in the city took three of my paintings for an exhibition of "folk art." Good, I thought. Then I saw the card. It said "Madhubani artist, Bihar." No name. When I asked, they said the name is not so important for traditional work, the tradition is the thing. I said nothing that day. Since then I always ask beforehand, how will my name be written. So I am asking you all. Not about rejection, rejection is one thing. Have you been treated as a nameless craftsman, a representative of your community or region and not a person with a name? Where did it happen, and did you say something or stay quiet like me? Tell me, so next time we know how to handle.