Sunflowers at dusk Painting

I was born in Kolkata, then Calcutta and raised in several cities and towns across India including Visakhapatnam, Hyderabad, Burdwan, Bangalore etc. I also lived in Tashkent, Uzbekistan as a child for a couple of years when my father was posted there as an electrical engineer. I currently live in New Delhi and work as a full time journalist which allows me to write on the environment, the natural world and climate change. My father had a keen interest in visual art and had been a painter himself. I may have developed an interest by seeing him paint. But, works of masters like Van Gogh and Monet evoke a strong love in me for art. I am a self taught artist who has taken training in patachitra and other folk art forms very briefly. I have won several awards in arts as a college student. But, now, as I grow, I look at art differently. It is a meditation at times and a means to express something is important. Idea is to evoke a certain feeling in you through my art. I am not a purist. I do not believe in perfectly beautiful looking artworks. What means the most to me is the ability to generate thought and response. Most of my works are inspired by nature because I believe it captures the truth of our condition. Nature, its people, animals have a redeeming quality which also brings me to believe in divine presence.