For 15 years, Qatar-based Indian artist Smita Aloni has been painting to help preserve a dying art form which dates back 1500 AD.

Aloni was the featured artist on the first-ever art exhibition recently organised by Standard Chartered Bank Qatar. Bank officials, parents, children and guests attended the successful one-day exhibition held at Standard Chartered D-Ring Road Branch.

Phad painting is a traditional Indian art form based on an epic in praise of the good deeds of King Pabuji. It is derived from the word ‘par’ which literally means ‘scroll’ in the local language. The scroll painting which was originally about 15ft in length and four to five feet high was used by storytellers to narrate the epic.

“This art form is not commonly known since it was restricted to one part of India,” Aloni explained.

She said the art form has been preserved through family tradition passing it from one generation to another but is threatened to disappear because very few artists nowadays practice the art form since it requires a lot of patience to make and does not guarantee good financial rewards.

Using hand made brushes and natural colours sourced from India, Aloni creates her paintings following very detailed style for them to look authentically phad. Her wide collection spans 10 years of dedication to the traditional art.

‘Scenes from the Palace’, ‘Procession of King’ and ‘Mythological Elephant’ were some of Aloni’s notable paintings exhibited during the exposition.

Apart from being a professional artist, Aloni also teaches painting to children, from whom she said she derived much inspiration from.

An exhibition of dozens of works by the children was also held. The paintings revolved around a theme on French Art following the technique of legendary French painter Rousseau.

The paintings depicted animals, forests, flowers, sun, moon and other objects of nature. Collage and paper mache art including glass, tile and ceramic paintings were also put on display.

“For more people to appreciate this art form, artists should make it simpler, such as lessening the number of characters for each painting,” Aloni said, as she showed examples of silk paintings in which she focused on just one central character.