I have been interested in art since my childhood and had art as a subject during my academic carrier. I feel it is an ideal medium of conveying emotions, feelings and communicating an artist’s inner expressions, imagination and creativeness. I completed my post graduation in Drawing and Painting in 1986 from Meerut University, Meerut, UP, India. My marriage to an Air Force officer, gave me opportunities to travel around the country, understand it’s wonderful people, their rich and diverse cultures and colorful emotions. I painted and created whatever I saw and appealed to me.
Love for beautiful nature and life translates into simplified and modernistic language in paintings. “My subject matter is simple and I express my aesthetic belief in artistic creativity with striking impact.” I feel each part of a painting has its own psychological effect, which depends upon the perception of each individual. My paintings convey own language of paint and brush subtly, suggestive of my fleeting moods, which I express broadly by breaking the space of canvas.
Nature, its flowering, flourishing, organization and dynamics has always fascinated me. My mind has always been occupied by the forms nature is capable of creating and giving these forms such alluring colours as would fascinate and beguile anybody. So my nature series is a new mode of personal expression. Quite an enjoyable period for that matter as long as it lasted. In certain works I had introduced human figures too. But that was only to establish an ongoing relationship between man and nature.
Form and colour have always fascinated me. But I found that I had to go into a more free world of expression than that of the figurative in order to explore both form as well as colour. It is in this period that I experimented with form and texture. And the more I delved in free creation, the more dynamic and meaningful forms I was able to create. Forms that had depth and cried for meaning, mysterious as these were. These left enough room for the viewer to interpret them in his or her own way. They either pulled one in or pushed him upwards (in an Urdhava Gati mode). Triangles upon triangles, serpentine light rays being emitted from the ever-active Sun, and fanning out in the dark cosmos or progression of the sun towards an imaginary sunset while ropes of light try to catch up with it.
In certain works of mine I tried to explore the circular from and texture and in others I explored the circle and the rectangle, trying to create a symphony of form and colour that would compel anybody to brood and meditate. Even conch shells were used to create a mysterious world of sub-marine nature. The progress herein was immense, meaningful and satisfying.
From Iconic imaging of Buddha and Krishna, I went into a narrative mode, recreating scenes from Buddha’s life and from Krishna’s romantic world. This brought me close to understanding both the Indian tradition in iconic imaging as well as the spirit behind the tradition, besides the message it sends to the common folk who participate actively in the cultural process in various ways. The narrativeness is indeed deeply satisfied about it.
Iconic images like that of “Buddha” and “Krishna” aren’t just symbols for triggering religious feelings. They are in fact a reflection of the message the master had given or Krishna had conveyed through his pranks and romanticism. To paint iconic images is thus an intense exercise in conveying the master’s message visually (since words are prohibited here). Unlike dance wherein the body movements and facial expressions move synchronously in order to convey a mood or story part, in visual imageries it is the inner movement behind a facial expression that conveys deeper meanings and subtler messages.
For example, take the Buddhas that I have painted over the years – in cold and warm tones, in various Yogic postures, with various depth of compassion. They have never been a repetition of some practiced posture or expression. They have, in fact, been a way to discover Buddha for myself (and through me for the viewer). They are in fact Buddhas ad infinitum (infinite Buddhas) to be viewed and understood differently.
It is the same with Krishna, the age old symbol of Indian (folk level) romanticism. My Krishna is not just the charmer or the flute player in particular postures, with Radha beside him (or the cows around him standing under a Kadamba tree). It is a Krishna who is trying to energise the world around him to go into an Ananda mode. It is the Ananda of the soul, not of the sensory world. And to paint that kind of Krishna is something that could be likened to deep-sea diving in order to fish the pearls out.
Some would call it Yoga. But I would not like to go into semantics as I had said earlier, words are prohibited here. For Krishna’s flute in my works is silent but emits notes that have to be received differently (through deeper personal involvement). I therefore do not paint just to see that the image is perfect. I paint till the Krishna on my canvas starts speaking to me and that is saying much in fact. (Much more than I would like to say, to be precise).
At a certain point of time I was occupied by the abstract mode of existing things – their reality as well as their meaning. This series of paintings was titled “Reflections”. I enjoyed doing this series as it was a timely change- from the spiritual to the human concern with the objective reality and its import to the self. We see and use objects, but we do not always see the essence of the objective world. The “reflection” is the essence of the object or objects as shadow is that of man. The shadow is not concrete, but it still reveals the man whose shadow it is. However my abstract phase is different from the western mode of painting still life. Because it is not confined to representing the real. It is in fact anther reality its essence, closely placed in a visual mode. It’s close to nature and has its own dynamics and colour orchestration.
In my paintings all my memories and feelings about life have taken the shape of lines and have woven texture just like a weaver does. Through my ‘Tana-Bana’ paintings, I have tried to show the balance between the society and our day-to-day life and within ourselves. It is like a warp and waft, so intact and that which keeps everything contained and held within.
My paintings are always rounded off with a tenderness of feelings and deep concern for subjects, which are mostly from life. My compositions figurative or non figurative, convey my feelings and expressions.
My sculptures are a thought-provoking reflection of the world in where we live, my subjects of sculptures are related to societal issues and nature. My creations are on important social topics, so they sparking conversations and inspiring change. In these sculptures my passion for love to nature serves as a poignant reminder of the interconnectedness of human experience and the natural world. My sculptures’ themes related to contemporary society so they invite viewers to engage with subjects and connect with the world around them.