The folk paintings of Odisha have flourished around the great religious centres of Puri, Konarak and Bhubaneshwar.
Traditionally the painters were known as Chitrakars. Their painting the 'Pattachitra' resemble the old murals of that region, dating back to the 5th century BC. The best work is found in and around Puri, especially in the village of Raghurajpur.
Pattachitra is a traditional craft, delicately painted on primed cloth or patta in the finest detail. The themes usually depict the Jagannath temple with its three deities - Lord Jagannath, his brother Balabhadra and sister Subhadra and the famous Rath Yatra festival. These paintings were originally substitutes for worship on days when the temple doors were shut for the 'ritual bath' of the deity. Many Pattachitra paintings are from the ancient Indian texts of Vishnu and Krishna. The paintings are of various shapes and sizes. A recent modification in Pattachitra paintings is the division of the Patta into a row full of squares with the high-point of the story in the larger centre square and various events portrayed in the other squares, not unlike the Kalamkari paintings. The Chitrakars prepare, what looks like a hard card paper using layers of old Dhoti cloth and sticking them together with a mixture of chalk and tamarind seed gum, which gives the surface a smooth leathery finish especially after it is rubbed with a conch shell. The theme is sketched with a pencil, then outlined with a fine brush using vivid earth and stone colours obtained from natural sources, like the white pigment prepared from conch shells, yellow from orpiment, red from cinnabar and black from lamp soot. After completion, the painting is held over red hot charcoals, and lac mixed with resin powder iis sprinkled over the surface; when this melts, it is rubbed over the entire surface to give a coating of lac.
Some of the popular themes represented through this art form are Thia Badhia - depiction of the temple of Jagannath; Krishna Lila - enactment of Jagannath as Lord Krishna displaying his powers as a child; Dasabatara Patti - the ten incarnations of Lord Vishnu; Panchamukhi - depiction of Lord Ganesh as a five-headed deity.
