A visitor appreciates a work of art from Raghurajpur, at the exhibition in Dublin. Telegraph picture

Bhubaneswar, Sept. 30: Art lovers in Dublin are lapping up everything offered by the creative residents of Raghurajpur crafts village.

An exhibition of their art works that is on in the Irish city has received remarkable response. Curator Jean Doyle said this was the first time traditional works of art from Raghurajpur had been displayed at an art gallery outside India and almost everything on display had been sold.

The works of over 50 artists of the Odisha village have been touring Ireland since August. The first exhibition of the collection of over 90 works was hosted at Pearse Musuem while the current exhibition is on at Ranelagh Arts Centre under the title Art of Raghurajpur.

“A jam-packed Ranelagh Arts Centre was visited even by the mayor of Dublin Oisin Quinn as well as Radikha L. Lokesh, ambassador of India during the launch last week,” Doyle told The Telegraph via e-mail.

“The art lovers have collected almost every single work from here,” said Doyle, who had visited the crafts village during an art exchange programme in 2011. She fell in love with the art and helped arrange the exhibition in Ireland while artist Kshitish and Pravat of the village co-ordinated from here.

The works exhibited include intricately carved palm leaf art, Odia patta painting, traditional tussar painting, sculptures made of cow dung and many more. Most of the works retain the traditional themes and patterns while some artists have tried to present new themes in traditional style such as the depiction of Jesus’ crucifixion on a palm leaf.

While the simplest and smallest patta paintings were sold for Rs 2,000, the most expensive work was by the late artist Babaji Maharana, whose “jatri patti” painting, now a lost form of art, was sold at Rs 40,000.

“Jean has asked me to send more works as soon as possible. They are also planning to extend the exhibition beyond September 29, the date it was originally supposed to conclude,” said Kshitish.

The artists who had sent their works are extremely excited with the response. The works have been sold at prices that the artists had fixed for each work.

“We have exhibited our works in many museums, halls and galleries in Mumbai and Delhi. Almost each family here gets bulk orders for works of art from different parts of the country and even outside it. But we had never got a chance to showcase our work at a gallery abroad. It is a wonderful feeling to receive appreciation from the Irish people. We had also pasted our names and the theme and concept for each art work so that the visitors there could understand our art and we are happy that they have,” said Sudarshan Swain, a sculptor and palm leaf artist, whose work has also been exhibited in Dublin.