Following My Paint Brush
by Dulari Devi and Gita Wolf
“Following My Paint Brush” by Dulari Devi and Gita Wolf. Published by Tara Books. An illustrated autobiography of an artist. Dulari Devi is a Madhubani artist from Bihar and won the Padma Shri award in 2020.
Hailing from a poor family of fisherfolk, Dulari Devi was used to a difficult life of hard and relentless labour. She did not have a chance to go to school. She loved watching children playing. She worked as a cleaning lady in others homes. Once when she was on her way to do cleaning, she came across children playing in the village pond. The scene remained etched in her mind and kept her happy.
One day Dulari went to work at a new home. The woman who she worked for was not an ordinary person but an artist. Dulari saw her painting and was delighted. She could think of nothing else but to try and make something beautiful like the painting. But how could she do it without paint or paper. She took some mud and started kneading it. She ended up making a bird with it. She had finally made something!
She found the courage to ask her employer if she could learn to paint from her. Her employer agreed readily and started teaching her. It was quite a daunting task given the fact that Dulari had to learn to hold a brush first and draw lines. But she persevered and learnt to paint. Her passion and determination to learn transformed her into an artist. She was no longer just a cleaning woman. She painted all the scenes that she had remembered from her childhood days.
Loved reading this book with my seven year old. He likes true stories and was happy to read about Dulari Devi’s extraordinary journey. He was amazed by her artwork and appreciated the hard work that goes into creating each of the paintings. Thank you Vidya for recommending this lovely book! The book is apt for children aged 6+.
Where to buy from?
The publishers Tara Books here.
An independent indie bookstore, Funky Rainbow, from where I buy many of my books.
Dulari Devi
The book got me into reading more about Dulari Devi. Married off at the age of 13, she returned to living with her parents at 18 after losing her newborn and being abandoned by her husband. She worked at Mahasundari Devi’s home who was a Padma Shri winning Madhubani Painter. Mahasundari Devi and her sister-in-law Karpoori Devi were both artists and took it upon themselves to mentor Dulari Devi and nourish her talent. If not for them, a talent like Dulari Devi’s would never have been discovered.