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Artist's Statement
"When I see light and color, I am light and color" - Deepak Chopra
I have always considered myself extremely fortunate to have been born into a privileged family in Bombay,
India at the close of the British Raj - a time when that country was about to undergo monumental changes.
The old order was shortly to disappear, and a new and freer society, which despite its seemingly
insurmountable problems, was to emerge ready to adopt a fresher and more optimistic World outlook, and
with a new found respect and appreciation of its own rich artistic and cultural heritage.
As a young schoolgirl, my favorite subject was art. Often I would arrive an hour early to classes
either in order to spend time in the art room by myself undisturbed, or to beg extra instruction
from the resident art teacher. I loved to copy both the school's large displayed collection of
Indian miniature paintings, and the colored prints of the work of the Impressionists such as
Monet and Renoir as well as the more formal Dutch and English landscapes which I had seen in
my early trips to Europe with my family. All throughout my school days I had only one overwhelming
ambition which was to become a real artist. When years later, at the tender age of fifteen while
enrolled in Girl Guides, I entered a juried art competition and was presented with a prize for my
Autumn watercolor by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth -then on a state visit, I knew I had "arrived".
I was an ARTIST at last!
Years of serious study and successful sell-out exhibitions ( both group and solo ) followed with
the result that when I finally decided that my future lay in the West, I left a body of over 300
works behind me. A great thrill for me was when the art director from the film production
team of James Ivory and Ismail Merchant visited my home studio to purchase paintings to decorate
the sets of some of their early films.
Now, after decades of living, studying, working, and exhibiting in such excitingly diverse cities
as New York, Boston, Toronto, San Francisco and Vancouver, I realize with wonder that the fates
have taken me on a longer journey than I could ever once have imagined, and those early mornings
in the school art room now seem very long ago and far away. Throughout my journey, I have
attempted to represent in my work the themes of growth, change, and regeneration always originating
from a constant and inextinguishable spiritual source - a theme most eloquently expressed in a further
quote from Deepak Chopra:
"I am the light of Knowingness where Creator,
creating and created are one"
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