En route to the Monkey Temple last weekend we walked by a store that was selling Mithila folk paintings. Neither of us knew what that meant, but beautiful eye-catching pieces lined their showroom so we were naturally intrigued.

We returned to the Mithila store yesterday after talking about the paintings all week. That tends to happen with us. We get an idea in our heads, we obsess over it and finally come to the conclusion that we can’t possibly live without it. (We own a 1977 Chevy El Camino because of this very process).

So it’s with great pride that I introduce you to the newest member of the growing Engstrom art collection – Big Bird! The woman that sold it to us was both the artist and a non-English speaker. So though it was nice to nod our head in appreciation, we couldn’t get a word of explanation about its subject matter other than it was about “return”.

A little research on the subject show Mithila paintings were traditionally made in the ancient Mithila region, which today is considered part of both northern India and southern Nepal. The tradition is handed down from mother to daughter and the subject matter varies from Hinduism to rural life and culture.

We still don’t know the subject matter of our piece, but we’ll just stick with “return”for now. In light of that, we will pack it up, ship it home and let it wait patiently (along with family, friends and the rest of our shipped nicknacks) for our return.

For more information about Mithila painting you can check out Wikipedia’s Mithila article here.