Taniya Vaidya is a Baroda (India) based freelance painter. She completed her Masters from the Faculty of Fine Arts, M S University of Baroda in 2003. She had training in natural dyes at the Regional Design Center, Bangalore, followed by practical study of natural dye use at the home of a traditional Kalmakari paintings (hand painted fabrics) craftsperson in rural Andhra Pradesh. She later documented Ajrakh dyeing (a block printing technique) in Kutch Gujarat. She uses hand painting, block printing, and textile dyeing with natural dyes to create contemporary paintings. She was invited by UNESCO and CCI to make a presentation at the International Workshop on Natural Dyes, Hyderabad November 5-12, 2006 (see TRJ Archives, Volume 12, Issue 2 ). She was in France during September-December, 2007, on a scholarship from the Pont Aven School of Contemporary Art to study painting. In last five years, she has successfully created an interest in use of natural dyes in contemporary paintings in India and abroad.

Here, Taniya presents three paintings using several natural dyes including myrabulam, indigo, madder, catechu, pomegranate rind, turmeric and kasim karam (iron water and crude sugar solution). These painting were made in 2007 using block printing and hand painting with natural dyes on hand-spun cotton. The mordant used is alum. The indigo was obtained using a natural vat.