An atelier taking orders
Nothing here is painted
until it is yours.
Thanjavur painting is a 200-year-old South Indian craft: ornament raised in gesso and gold-toned foil laid over the relief. Peacocks and lotuses, elephants and tigers, temple gateways and palace courtyards — and the devotional subjects the school is known for. You choose a design and a frame, we commission a painter, and your piece is painted in 3–5 days, framed, then shipped.
01
You order
A design is chosen. Nothing exists yet.
02
A painter is commissioned
Your piece is assigned by name.
03
Painted in 3–5 days
Gesso, color, then the foil.
04
Framed and shipped
Crated and insured. You are emailed at every stage.
From the gallery wall
A few of the 105 designs, each shown in the same frame so the collection reads as one hand.
Four collections
Most of what we paint is not devotional. Peacocks, elephants, temple gateways and court portraits are painted with the same gold and gesso, and carry none of the iconography.
Birds & Botanicals
27 designs
Peacocks, parrots and cranes; lotus, hibiscus and mango blossom. The tradition's ornamental repertoire, painted with the same foil and gesso as its temple work and carrying none of the iconography.
Animals & Wildlife
22 designs
Caparisoned elephants, tigers, deer and the animals of the court hunt. Ceremonial subjects from South Indian festival and palace life, and the easiest room in the gallery to buy from without knowing the tradition.
Temples, Palaces & Village Life
30 designs
Gopurams and temple tanks, durbar halls and palace courtyards, river ghats and village streets — with the court portraits that belong to the same world. Architecture and daily life rather than deities.
Deities & Devotional
26 designs
The devotional subjects the Thanjavur school was built on — Nataraja, Lakshmi, Saraswati, Rama — in raised gesso and gold-toned foil, painted the way they have been for two hundred years.
Don't see what you want?
A bird, a building, a family portrait, a deity — if it can be painted in this technique we will paint it. Tell us what you have in mind and Kavitha will come back with a price and a timeline.
Start a commission inquiry