About
I grew up in Mumbai, India, in a family that routinely embarked on road trips to rural and urban places. I think that accounts for my fascination with passing landscapes, nature, architecture, and the people, food, languages and cultures associated with them. I have lived in the United States for most of life. I am attracted to and energized by colors, shapes, texture, and geometry of forms . Together they contribute to my creativity and the desire to have a visual representation of what is in my mind and what I am feeling.
I have painted for much of my life with my painting taking a more serious turn when I studied portrait art with Sharon Sprung for several years. Capturing the form of a human being, their expression, and bringing them to life on canvas, is a beautiful challenge. I have moved to modern, contemporary abstract forms from a desire to work outside the boundaries of physical forms.
I am not trying to represent physical forms as they exist. What I wish to convey is the 'essence' that I see and feel via the colors, shadows, and textures on a canvas. A bird has a beak, wings, feathers... but it is whimsical, fleeting, energetic, colorful. I want to unbottle those qualities to convey the feeling not the form. To me experiencing the feeling makes the form much more tangible - it creates a greater understanding without limitations of physical structure. Even more, by not limiting expression to a form, I believe that one can interact and experience the abstract representation differently from moment to moment. It is liberating the 'essence' from the form. Metaphorically, it is like the soul being separated from the body.
I have attended the National Academy Museum School of Art, New York, The Art Students League of New York and the Creative Art School in Delray Beach, Florida.
MADHU POWAR GARG