“I am an outsider to the art world. I paint to share hope.”
I am self-taught. I began to paint when I found two old brushes, a school art book from forty years ago and six bottles of paints in my childhood home in Forbesganj. during the Covid lockdown. My mother’s garden blossomed in the monsoon rain and the old neglected summer home in Forbesganj came alive again. I want to share that sense of life continuing.
WELCOME TO MY GALLERY...
My Forbesganj Garden
and below are paintings from other series…
The Female Gaze: Flâneuse
Cafes have always represented independence to me. Whenever I visit a new city, I like to go to a café alone, order a coffee/wine and sit with a book or newspaper, looking at the city.
When New York began to open up after nearly two years of Covid, I began to paint the city come to life from a café. Streets were busier, the lights from apartments brighter.
Shaheen Bagh
I travelled to thirteen cities to speak at the Shaheen Bagh women’s protests. I was gifted a handmade paper diary at the Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad, my second stop. I drew my impressions with colorful water-soluble crayons in that small Khadi diary as I waited in airports and stations to catch a flight or train for the next rally. I wanted to hold the energy in my heart forever. The protest lasted for 100 days.
Venice and Naples
It all begin when I found Fabriano art paper and a magical paintbrush that could hold water in an alley in Venice. I painted where ever I wanted and sold some of these crayon drawings as I drew them at St Marco’s square in Venice.
There was color and light and laughter everywhere. It was as if the world had forgotten the lockdown.
Sonora
The Sonora desert is full of life. It’s mood changes every hour. I painted it from sunrise to sunset and saw colors of every shade in the dunes and the skies and the earth. Nothing is lifeless on planet earth. We only have to look.
East Hampton
There is a home by the ocean in Long Island that is weather beaten and salty. It is mellow, tastes of the sea air, is pink and green and yellow. I paint it along with the ocean every summer. It refelcts languidity in every line of every clapboard. I wish the uncut grass and unpruned roses would stay uncut and unpruned a little longer.
New York series
There are some homes in New York which are quintissentially New York. They represent the throbbing creative energy of the city. Writers in rooms surrounded by books, artists lofts, actor’s studios, poetry clubs…This is a painting of Gloria Steinem’s living room where she writes and thats me, writing alongside.