Orissa has a rich tradition of paintings like her architecture and sculpture .Orisan school of paintings has  three  streams, the tribal, the folk and the classical. Both the folk and classical paintings are traditionally linked with Jagannath. In Jagannath temple we find very fine speciman of early mural paintings. Two important of them are paintings of Kanchi Vijaya on the Jagamohan of Jagannath temple and painting of Buddha Vijaya on the Jagamohan of Laxmi temple.

 Pata paintings or Patachitra is a vary old form of art in Orissa. These paintings flourished in Orissa in early 15th and 16th centuries and later because of Jagannath. The cult of Jagannath used pata paintings to spread the faith throughout Orissa and also outside.Because of the patronage by the temple of Jagannath, the Chitrakaras (the painters) painted Jagannath  patas in large number and  slowly these patas outnumbered other thematic ones in Orissa. Besides Jagannath, themes of Ramayana and Bhagabata are also popular theme for the chitrakaras.

Jagannath Jatripatas or pilgrim paintings have been evolved  from the temple of Jagannath. The   pilgrims who visit the temple of Puri buy these patas and carry their home as souvenirs. Keeping in view of their increasing demand, these paintings are done in large numbers in small as well as in large formats and their prices vary from few rupees to thousand rupees. The basic theme of these paintings is Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra inside the temple.
          The basic colour of  these pata paintings are Vermillion (Hingula), Yellow (Haritala), White (Shankha), Black (Kajal or kala), Indian Red (Geru). Blue is a latter addition to this colour scheme.
        Palm leaf paintings are equally popular form of art in Orissa evolved in later part of 17th centiry. Ramalila and Krushnalila are the most popular theme for these paintings
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          The world of crafts in Orissa is wide, fascinating and  full of wonders. The deft hands of Orissa’s craftsmen shape and mould inanimate materials of stone, wood, metal and clothes with consummate skills and breathe life and beauty into them. No wonder Orissan handicrafts have attracted  and captivated people from all over the  world for centuries. The heritage of Orissa handicrafts embodies the  soul of Orissa’s culture which has  always given a high place to art and craft eversince its recorded history and before.

Stone carvings is one of the major crafts in Orissa. As evident from innumerable archeological monuments and sculptures, we find that art of carving in stone has reached dizzy heights of excellence perfected through centuries in Orissa. The Orissan artisans use a variety of materials like ultra soft white soap stone( Khadipathara), a harder greenish chlorite (Kochilapathara),Still harder pinkish handolite (Baulapathara) and hardest of all black granite (Mugunipathara) for carvings. They use a simple process of drawing the  figure on the stone and bring the final shape by removing the unwanted portions. For the hard stone it is done by chiseling while for the soft stone scrapping process is used.
 

          For motifs, figures of Gods and Goddesss and most popular while Konark wheel, miniatures temples, Alasakanyas or (indolent damsels), horse, elephants, Mythological figures like Gajasimhas, Gajabidalsa are also  common forms that are usually carves out in stone. The  stone carvings is mostly practiced in Puri, Cuttack and Mayurbhanj districts. Since pilgrim town Puri provides the best outlets for the sale of crafts, most of the towns and  villages  close by have the largest concentration of handicraft artisans Raghurajpur.