Soil of gold (2020) Painting by Sharmila Gupta

Children possess a unique and innocent expression that is filled with playfulness and excitement. Whenever I immerse myself in the process of painting, I, too, become like a child - wholly engrossed in the activity, free from any pressure to do it right, and solely focused on the task at hand. Through relentless experimentation, I release the burden of impressing someone or representing something in an orderly fashion to validate its existence.

Until I physically touch the paint with my fingers, I do not perceive the colors in their full vibrancy. The texture, fluidity, and smoothness that I feel through my fingertips allow me to paint with unbridled joy using my palms and fingers. My compositions sparkle with brilliant blues, cheerful greens, reds, and yellows, and darker hues provide striking contrasts. What remains constant in my artistic process is my delight in the elemental quality of paint.

My paintings' forms effortlessly move between representational and abstract imagery, showcasing my seemingly contradictory inclinations. Although my creative process may seem chaotic, my compositions are deliberately playful, and my work can transition abruptly from solemn to humorous. It is in these moments that I experience the painting's transcendent power.

Nature is a constant source of inspiration for me, and I enjoy incorporating ideograms, patterns that interact with shapes, and atmospheric moods into my artwork. At the edge of water and land, I become immersed in the visceral experience of light, space, and motion. I endeavour to bridge the atmospheric, volumetric world of matter and its equivalent in signs. Landscape, therefore, becomes not only a medium for viewing the fleeting nature of the elements and their seasonal and biological cycles but also a vessel for thought and process within the context of various pictorial languages.

In my current suite of works, I often experiment with different viewing perspectives. Sometimes I visualize myself as a fish traversing the water or as a bird flying above, while at other times, I crawl on the surface of the earth. I frequently incorporate different vantage points into a single painting, creating a vertical panoramic space anchored by two trees that unites land, fire, water, and sky seen from above and at the horizon.

I emphasize my love of light and express my painterly forms using abbreviated signs, sometimes managing to employ both modes simultaneously

• Nationality: INDIA
• Date of birth : 1976
• Artistic domains: Works by professional artists,
• Groups: Professional Artist Contemporary Indian Artists