Psychedelic Peacock Madhubani Paintings

This one has been handpicked from the studios of local artisans in the region in present-day Bihar. It is done on handmade paper paintings with pigments made from traditional ingredients such as blended lampblack and rice powder. The beauty of the Indian peacock has been captured to perfection in this abstract composition that relies on a repetition of its one-of-a-kind feather-motif. 

Peacock Madhubani paintings

A peacock with an elaborate, layered plumage constitutes the foreground. Its tiny body is made up of motifs, some of which are strategically filled in with paint, to create patterns that are seemingly hallucinogenic. 

Desert-Skinned Beauty Oil Paintings

The tousled mass of her hair glows against the dim lamp that she has lit somewhere in her room, not within the view afforded by the frame. She has let it cascade to midway down her back, the desert tone of which comes across as highly seductive. From the gold and rubies and emeralds of Her statement shringar, to the band of turquoise brocade that is visible of her choli, bring out the beauty of her distinct complexion.

Desert-Skinned Beauty

The tousled mass of her hair glows against the dim lamp that she has lit somewhere in her room, not within the view afforded by the frame. She has let it cascade to midway down her back, the desert tone of which comes across as highly seductive. 

The Ascetic Lord Ganesha in yogic roopa

This bronze sculpture is a unique study in Lord Ganesha iconography. It is the yogic roopa of the son of Hinduism's mahayogi, Lord Shiva. The giveaways are in the kamandalu that He carries in His left hand, a quintessential possession of the ascetic.All the bhiksha He receives is gathered in it, no matter the nature of the edible in question; because He consumes mitahar (measured proportions of food) for His bare survival, as opposed to consumption for pleasure.

Ascetic Lord Ganesha

Another sign of the Lord's asceticism lies in the kind of slippers that grace His feet. It is called kharam, which serve to merely clothe the sole and are secured in place by being wedged in between the hallux and the index toe. An open garland graces His torso.

A striking Banjara woman Oil Art on Canvs

A striking Banjara woman forms the subject of this oil. She is tall, as could be made out from the length of her decolletage and torso; and dressed in minimal clothing to beat the merciless North Indian heat as she goes about her chores around the house. Her roseate skin, as much of it as is exposed, shimmers in the sun.

striking Banjara woman

She stands at the threshold of her bamboo hut, moments before stepping in after a round of chores in the courtyard. Something has caused her to pause, as she looks out into the distance with those intense, kohl-rimmed eyes. Perhaps she is waiting to watch her makeshift fields crop before her eyes (makeshift, because jhuming or slash-and-burn cultivation is how Banjaras subsist), a surreal prospect; or her husband is working on the cultivated patch, and she is trying to gauge from his body language whether he is returning to her any time soon. How realistic is the stance of her fingers - especially as she grips the shoot next to her - and the fold of the loosely knotted ghagra against the raised thigh, with its exposed sweep of skin.

A Friendship That Blossomed By The Well

One of them balances both their pots about her on the mud platform surrounding the well, whilst the other leisurely gathers the ropes. Dressed in the colourful bootidar ghagra-cholies of North Indian married women, they have let the diaphanous wisps by way of their dupattas fall away from their torsos.

A Friendship That Blossomed Mughal Paintings

A woman's days are all the same - she is the essential backdrop against which her loved ones function, tending to an unending cycle of things that need to be done such that a contrary state of affairs occurs to no one - and it is this that forms the subject of the women's conversation at the well.