Stock Photo - Raghurajpur, Orissa, India. Raghurajpur artists’ village is famous for its Patta Chitra paintings, painting, palm leaf inscription, papier mache, sodhai work mural painting, cow dung toys, coir, screw pine leaf and wood work, filigree, appliqué, terracotta and bell metal work. The villages are living workshops and come alive when the artisans start their day. Artists can be seen busy at work on their sit-out platforms in front of their thatched brick houses. No village is more involved in preserving India’s priceless skills than Orissa´s Raghurajpur. Patta Chitra paintings are done on specially prepared cotton cloth, which is coated with a paste made of tamarind seeds and powdered chalk, before applying natural colours. This makes it parchment-tough. Using delicate brushes, the fine outlines of the painting are drawn. These, are then, filled in with colours to create pictures from the epics like Mahabharata and Ramayana. Though the arts of Raghurajpur were originally inspired by religious themes, the artists have responded to changing demands and have begun to handle secular subjects with the same painstaking finesse. Everyone here seems to be either an established artist or an aspiring artist.