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Enchanted Realms - An Art Exhibition of Contemporary Art Inspired by Nature

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  Delighted to share that my next exhibition is beginning on 22 January 2023...And doubly delighted to receive this review of my work by art curator and historian Vaishnavi Ramanathan.    Enchanted by Nature - Vaishnavi Ramanathan, Independent Curator Dharshana Bajaj is a self-taught artist whose teacher has been nature. Drawn to nature and creative forms of expression since a young age, in the last two decades of her artistic career the two have merged to nourish each other. Implicit in the way she approaches both these aspects is the notion of the feminine. She sees nature as a feminine creative force that is spiritual, healing, magical, and open to change. This interpretation shapes her work methodology and visual language in many ways. Observing Dharshana’s works produced over the last few years, one can see a great variety in stylistic language, imagery, and approach. There are organic abstracts, life studies, autobiographical narrative paintings, and semi-abstract works. In terms
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My writing life: Gaia's Own: Every Child's Guide to Live in Harmony...

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My writing life: Gaia's Own: Every Child's Guide to Live in Harmony... :   “ If you truly get in touch with a piece of carrot, you get in touch with the soil, the rain, the sunshine. You get in touch with Mother...
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It's Time Again

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It’s time again, for another art show, another solo, another round of photo ops and PR calls. Presenting an art show can be quite a challenge, with a number of things to think of and organize. But its also good fun and very satisfying. I recall embarrassing art inaugurations where hardly anyone showed up! Even the chief guests were embarrassed to be there. I sure hope this one’s way, way different. It should be, will be, an opening to remember. For one, I couldn’t have asked for a more appropriate location than the Painter’s Garden. Idyllic, to say the least, though it could have been a bit bigger. For another, Dr. Ashrafi S. Bhagat has agreed to be the chief guest, and she an art critic and historian of such repute! It is truly my privilege. And the most important reason I believe this is a show to memorialize is that I am mighty proud of the art I have on offer. So glad I have been able to reach this station in my journey through life. I’m sure I have a lot of better work ahead of me
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I Am That

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 What is the truth about life? Why are we here? Who are we really? Divine spirits in human bodies? Did we come here to do the things we do? Or have we all missed out on the real reasons for being? The pettiness, the back-stabbing, the envy and the hate. Where did all this come from? And why? Where did pain and poverty come from? Did we create it? And the abuse? The massacre's? And yet we are supposed to be divine?  It all comes down to the choices we make. Like choosing to remind ourselves we are divine. Yes, one needs to keep repeating to oneself. This crazy world we live in does not reflect who we really are. We are not petty mortals with decaying flesh, only. We are much, much more.  I Am That (Charlie), Oil Painting on Canvas, 36" x 48", 2021
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Doubt The Great Slayer

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Picasso’s biographer, author and critic Pierre Daix observed, ‘Painters are never better than in the evening of their lives.’ May be so. But when you are young and yet to be recognized in the world for your art, when you are still light years away from finding a place for yourself as an artist in this world, you are sure to have a few companions hovering around you at all times, not the least eager of them being your doubts. Doubts in the worthiness of what one produces can hound a creative person to the edge of insanity, especially when one seems to be the only one who considers one’s efforts of any value. History is filled with names of such artists.   Every artist has asked this of himself at one point or the other: “Am I good enough?” Even those with every right to be conceited and confident have been humbled by this insidious traitor, Doubt. Nowadays artists seek validation on social media platforms. But until the art work is actually considered worthy enough to be bought by someo
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Standing One’s Ground

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Considering my last post and/or my meandering career, somebody recently called me a very confused lady. Yes, it may appear that way, that I’m unsure about what I wish to do with my life, and so jump from one available opportunity to the next. However, that is not the case. I have always had clarity about the fact that I loved art and wanted to be engaged in it. As a child, I knew I wanted to be an artist. I had that clarity, I remember even now, when I was 12 or 13 and found out there was a good art teacher just 10 minutes away by walk. I recall taking the tuition fee for the class from my mother and walking to the class with my sister by ourselves. We both signed up, and attended a few classes, always walking to the classes by ourselves. Being childish yet, I didn’t know at the time the value of persistence and discipline, and so after a few classes, I didn’t go again, and no one at home said anything about that. Again when I was in class 10, about 15 years old, I remember drawing a p
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Own It

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Perhaps its a result of clarity, or just how the circumstances play out. Or may be its a reflection of the character of a person. But while some people thrive in their roles in one particular company for a better part of their lives, taking root as it were, some, like me, live out their days like modern day gypsies, following their hearts and their fancies, untethered by personal responsibilities that demand accountability, moving along from one company to the next, following one area of interest to another, gathering experiences and  learnings, taking life as it comes, one day at a time, carefree, curious, like a rolling stone. Is one way of being better than the other? I would say that depends on what one's priorities in life are. The important thing is to own it all, to accept one's choices, and the ensuing consequences. Because to take the responsibility for our actions and to be true to our inner guidance is to empower ourselves, while acquiescing to external opinions  and
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Inspirational Arts Magazine

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 Delighted to have a brief writeup and portfolio of my art featured on the UK based online art magazine, Inspirational Arts.  Founded and published by artist and writer John Hopper, this online magazine aims to support new and upcoming artists as well as the well-established working artists, giving them some much needed exposure. This is their 46th issue. Here's my piece in it: Dharshana Bajaj: Contemporary Artist from India, Working with Oil paints and Watercolours.  My Journey As An Artist Art is home to me. It’s what I’ve always turned to in times of crises or confusion. It’s where I find solace and strength anytime life throws another twist in my tale… For a long time, I felt that the fact that I had missed out on formal art education means I could never be a “real” artist. I was always embarrassed by this fact. Until a well-known art critic told me that perhaps that was a good thing after all, and had spared me the dogma and set beliefs that otherwise may have limited me. Now,
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Slow Down My Beating Heart

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 You can't rush it. You can't force it. You have just got to allow it to flow, to take the time it needs...creativity must be honored with space and time to flourish. And if it sometimes feels like you're taking two steps forward and ten back, or going around in circles, then so be it. It takes time for a seed to become a fully grown tree...and you likewise serve your ideas best when you just let them be. Perseverance is required, not aggression. Rushing, pulling, and prodding can only lead to premature emergence of the idea...weak and raw...or worse, undesired abortion.  So, while we do wish for grand success and glory, we serve our art and ourselves best by accepting our subordinate role to that which wishes to be created and in the grand scheme of things. It's what the Bhagwat Gita recommends...as does Tao...or any other philosophy in the world. Do what needs to be done, but worry not about the results. Because really, as creative beings, we are but the conduits...wh
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Under A Crimson Sky

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I seem to be in an in-between space. Between what was and what is yet to be...find my self in a mode of reminiscing, and looking at exactly how and what I need to improve upon along my journey as an artist and a person. Nature has been the greatest inspiration for my work, becoming more and more the focal point. But art has also served as therapy as I have often expressed myself through it in a myriad ways. For instance, the time in 2017 when I came up with a very "different" concept. Under A Crimson Sky. We all wish for it sometimes, don't we? A better place, a safer place. A more humane world without all the poverty, trauma, rape, abuse, dishonesty, corruption, calamity, etc...Like this parallel universe with a pink sky, where cities are peaceful, people are wiser, and joy is the modus operandi.  This series of large and small format paintings was shown at the famous gallery Sarla's Art World, in December 2017. With Dr. Priya Selvaraj as the chief guest inaugurating
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Chasing Butterflies 2012

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A twist in your life story inspires you to try new things. That's what happened to me in 2012. I woke up from some delusions...and decided its better to chase some real butterflies!  I had first tried abstracts in the Creative Painting program that was a part of my MA History of Fine Arts degree at Stella Maris College between 1994-1996. I I remember falling in love with that process/approach completely even then. But the world around me is too beautiful to limit myself to abstracts, I decided. Years later, this series of abstracts, titled Chasing Butterflies, was inspired by a walk in the park, with my little one. As I watched him watch the butterflies, with such attention, and wonder, it occurred to me to recreate that moment on canvas...as always, some expressions work, some do not. But the process has been fun, and full of learning. Suits me completely.
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Be Yourself

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 Just came across these thoughts from Summits of My Life by Kilian Jornet :   1.  No one told us what we were. No one told us we should go. No one told us that it would be easy. Someone once said that we are our dreams. If we don't dream we are no longer alive. 2.  We walk in the footsteps of instinct leading us into the unknown. 3.  We don't look at the obstacles we've overcome, but at those we've got ahead of us. 4.  It's not about being faster, stronger or bigger. It's about being ourselves. 5.  We're not runners, alpinists or skiers...we're not only sportspeople...we're people. 6.  We can't be sure we'll find it, but we're going in search of happiness. 7.  With simplicity. 8.  In silence. 9.  Responsibly. 10. What are we after? Might it be life? With a few changes, this could be a manifesto for an artist as well. Or any one at all. The point being, we are in it, whatever that "it" may be, in search of happiness. To meet life
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Nature: An Online Exhibition

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 In these times of the pandemic...finding new ways to make art accessible to the world...Presenting a collection of over 125 art works based on the concept of Living in Harmony with Nature...a theme that I have been coming back to through the last decade or so... Art heals. 
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Location: India
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Trust Yourself

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Our doubts can be our biggest traitors! Forcing us to give up our big ideas before they reach fruition. That is why it is so important, for artists as well for any other person or child, to learn to love themselves, and to see the value in what we contribute or create. That is in fact one of the most important things parents need to teach their children to do, to love themselves. It may sound so simple, so obvious, but in the stress and strain of life, sometimes it is by such simple things that we pay the price of existence. In an effort to do the "best" by those around us, often we end up making them feel small, insignificant, useless. Or we may do the same to ourselves. How then can one experience "good", or "success" outside, in the world around us, when we feel of so little value within?
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Warrior With A Brush

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They say the world is heading for a climate change crisis. If we don't wake up and change our ways, we'll bring hell on earth for the future generations. But we are such creatures of habit! What can we, individually, do to become change agents and saviours? As an artist, I believe I can contribute to awareness of the beauty and glory of the natural world that we have been blessed with. Even if it is to bring a smile on one person's face, evoke a feeling in one beating heart, a little bit of art would be going a long way. So the best we can each do, is honour the inner voice within, and do as best as we can that one thing we are meant to do. 
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A 100 Shades Of Green

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One of the questions artists are often faced with is “what to paint”? A blank canvas is a point of endless possibilities, a medium to a number of destinations. How does one decide which is the best choice at a given moment? It is believed that the best kind of art is personal. Paint about your life, they said. Paint about what makes you you. Your journey, your story. Your dark nights of the soul. And I've been doing that intermittently over the years now, mostly as a form of catharsis, and it isn't always pretty. In fact, the work can often be grim, sombre, depressing. Does the world really need that kind of art, I asked myself. That would just keep us more rooted to the same. So instead of painting what’s wrong with life and the world around me, I decided to focus on something else that is personal, too. The source of my strength, my light, my eternal joy...Nature. I have been doing so since 2007.  Even ten minutes spent in nature lifts up one's spirits, as an
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The Blessed One

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It was a sunny day, a Sunday in February. We were at our stalls, rather behind them in any available shade, during the one day Art Fest that is now becoming an annual feature of Chennai. Hot, sweaty, and eagerly looking out for any prospective art lovers passing by, I was happy to see a middle-aged man with a ready smile stop to keenly look at my work. While I was wondering if this perusing would soon translate into a sale, and trying to recollect again the prices that I had quoted for each, I was pleasantly surprised when the shortish, bespectacled man with greying temples said, “If you don’t mind could I ask you a few questions?”. “Sure”, I said, of course. A good conversation with random folks is what makes such events worth one’s time. “I have a daughter who’s in the 10 th  now. And I have to help her take a decision soon about what to major in next year. All my friends and family members are advising me to put her in the science stream, to make her an engineer to secure her
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Thota Laxminarayana - Meet the Artist

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To find one’s own voice in the work that one creates is in many ways to have finally arrived... To have your work be its own signature, to have people look at a painting, and to recognize the ‘style’ as yours is a sure indication that you have finally found your place in the scheme of things... One such happy artist is the man who’s bringing rural India to the urbane world very stylishly...Thota Laxminarayana. Having spent a good part of his childhood in the villages of Andhra Pradesh, Thota brings to us the brilliant, steamy summers of rural India, with its vibrant colours and the idyllic innocence all wrapped up in a fresh personal idiom. A self-taught artist, Thota has been creating art since the age of eight, inspired by the Nirmal folk art that was all around him.   “I used to paint as a child but I was mostly active with other art forms. I used to act in dramas, make paper jewellery, make clay idols and got into paintings ver
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