When we started accepting orders 3 months ago, we started with few local artists and couple artists from different cities in India. My faith in the project became stronger and stronger as we started to talk to artists one-on-one, almost everyone was stoked about the idea and our passion, and attention to details to the project. We ended up contacting several artists pan India, some strongly resonated with our idea and so it began... We are still in process of on boarding artists, and we are constantly looking for talent. My wife has a very keen eye in spotting talent, and she also has a degree in Fine Arts so her being a co-founder in this venture helps a lot.

Fun Fact that helped us break-through with most of the artists can choose their pricing, we don't ask them to stick to certain pricing, hence artists don't feel boxed. My biggest take-away has been to never let their (artists) creative spirits cause of a certain economics of the business. We are still learning, and will know more as we progress.

I don't think it's challenging to convince an artist, they'd be happy to do this work at these costs. Finding artists is a bigger problem, and I'd guess they solved it by knowing someone with ancestry from a painting-oriented village community.

Artists do recommend other artists. Most artists we come across is through artist recommendation.

Is there a reason artists in the area would not appreciate paid work?

If the pay was lower than their current work. Or the demands were much higher for similar/more pay.