Across the Bay

“As a young child from Southern India, I was always interested in drawing and painting and spent most of my free time drawing. I learnt to paint through observation and experiment. Initially self taught, it was only later that I was enthused into getting some formal training from K.C. Murukesan who is a senior artist from Kallandiri, well known for his abstract landscapes. His encouragement and techniques have influenced me greatly. My fascination in portraying landscapes started when I was about seven years old following a visit to an architect’s office at the time our home was being built. It was a real feast to see entire walls covered with architectural drawings.

My passion to draw and paint grew and as I improved technically, I discovered that the depicted subject looked different depending on my visualisation of it.  With time and practice, I  began to see patterns in urban landscapes: of light and shade, of shapes and sizes, of what I chose to see and how I chose to represent them.

I discovered that oil paints applied with palette knives were a brilliant medium to narrate my interpretation of the fabric of the places I visited. These representations are not painted in situ but from memory, allowing fragments of visual data to combine with my subjective and emotional response.   Landscape is an ongoing series that allows me to narrate what I’m moved by – hence some places revisited and re-interpreted more than others.

More recently, I have been absorbed in painting light. My new series of work are expressive, full of colour and convey the mood and energy of places.” Suchi