The state’s biggest festival has come alive on canvases. The Telegraph presents some of the oil paintings made by artists over the years

Chhath is a festival celebrated in reverence of the Sun God. Amateur painter Birendra Bariar (49) has highlighted the importance of the Sun God in this painting by a bindi of a Chhath devotee. The painter has used beautiful colour combinations

Artistspeak: I wanted to show the importance of Sun God in my painting. So, I thought to portray him in this way. It took me around 10 days to complete this painting, which is one of my favourites on Chhath. My speciality on Chhath paintings is the black-and-white backdrop. This has been done so that it helps to illustrate the main subject which I want to show in my painting

Bariar has highlighted the importance of soop with his depiction of a big one in front of the Sun God. The artist has shown sunrays falling on the soop as well as on the devotees in this painting. In a way, the artist has shown that the Sun God is showering his blessings on devotees

Artistspeak: Thekua, fruits, kheer and other prasad items are offered to the Sun God on the soop during Chhath. So, the soop is of utmost importance. It took me around 25 days to complete this painting because I had to draw many figures of women which would be identical to each other

In this, Bariar has showcased seven Chhath devotees and he has coloured all of them in different shades. A close look at this painting will reveal that all the seven faces have different expressions. The artist has depicted seven soops — an important feature of the festival

Artistspeak: In this painting I have shown all the seven colours of light. I have shown seven faces of women in my painting, all of which have been painted in different colours. Chhath is a very colourful festival. Today not only Hindus but people from other religions also perform this puja. The aim behind showing seven different faces in different colours was to highlight that today Chhath is not only confined to only one religion

Bariar has tried to show the utmost devotion with which one observes Chhath. The eyes of Chhath devotees have been shown closed in the painting while praying to the Sun God. The other important aspects, including arghya, have also been highlighted by the painter

Artistspeak: I just wanted to show the emotions of a Chhath devotee which is attached to the festival. How much a lady delves deep into her devotion while observing the rituals is what can be seen in this painting. It took me only four days to complete this painting. It was my first painting of the Chhath series

A beautiful oil painting on Chhath by Chandan Chowdhury (52). Chowdhury has used different colour combinations in this painting to highlight the main subject of this theme. Brown, black, white and orange colours are prominent in this painting. The best thing about this painting is that Chowdhury has depicted the vermilion on the forehead of a lady devotee, which has stretched up to her nose

Artistspeak: I wanted to highlight the importance of the vermilion used by a Chhath devotee. I have seen women who observe Chhath rituals put vermilion on their forehead and they stretch it up to their nose. The women look stunning in this form. I always wanted to depict the beauty of Chhath devotees in my paintings

Text by Shuchismita Chakraborty
Pictures by Ranjeet Kumar Dey