What is usually described as “Mithila paintings” are omnipresent in Janakpur public spaces. A full wall painting welcomes travellers at the airport. The hall of the newly constructed railway station also displays them. You can find them along the wall of the Janaki temple compound, but also in the wall of schools, buildings and other public spaces. The compound wall of every building along a road where NGO and INGO offices are located is all painted with the same light ochre as a background to a series of Mithila paintings. What kind of place are these paintings creating? Do Mithila painters represent a community?  How are these paintings perceived by the general Janakpur passers-by? Are these painting “just” a decoration? The painters I met come from different social backgrounds and in their art they engage with the social reality they portray in different ways. While strongly grounded on the same “traditional” style, some painters imbue their work with contemporary themes: the challenges of lockdown when Covid19 sufferers were carried to the hospital by ambulance or those walking around during lockdown were beaten by the police, or the aspirations of young urban women.