MURAL PAINTINGS
 The
art of painting on walls or Mural Painting dates back
to the prehistoric era in Kerala. The inspiration and influence
for Kerala style of mural painting as per research, may have
been sourced from the Pallava art and the Dravidian temples,
which can be traced back to seventh and eighth century AD. The
oldest of these paintings is believed to be in the rock-cut
cave temple of Thirunandikkara that is now in Kanyakumari
district of Tamil Nadu.
 For
these paintings, once the theme is selected, the outline is
drawn with 'dung crayons' and then painted with the relevant
colours. After the painting is done, an overcoat with a mixture
of 'pine resin' and 'oil' is given for providing lustre and
fastness to the mural. Three types of brushes are used to apply
the paint - flat, medium and fine. Flat brushes are made
from hair found on the ears of calves, medium from the
hair at the bottom of a goat's belly and fine brushes
are made of thin hair from the tails of muskrats or narrow grass
blades. Mixing of colours is done in wooden utensils and sometimes
the binding media used are tender coconut water and exudes from
Neem trees, also lac is sometimes used for obtaining deep red.
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