Sudha Barshikar

A self taught artist of her own making, Sudha started painting as a way of studying the daily life she saw while growing up. Starting with pencil sketching, she quickly moved on to experiment with water colours, oil paints and mixed media. Over the last 50 years, Sudha has shown her talent in charcoal, water colours, oil paint, acrylics, ceramics, stained glass. More recently, she has started painting on silk using silk dyes to bring an ethereal quality to her work.

Starting with her first exhibition in 1974, Sudha has since then had more than 25 exhibitions including at the Jehangir Art Gallery, YB Chavan art gallery, Nehru centre gallery and Kamalnayan Bajaj to name a few. Her paintings and ceramics are now in collector’s homes and offices across the world from the Americas to Australia. Her work graces many corporate spaces in India and abroad, from Camlin ltd to Kirloskar brothers.

Sudha’s paintings are a reflection of everything she sees around her, her favourite series has been on daily life. Painted with Acrylics on canvas, this series depicts scenes from day to day activities like drawing a rangoli, to watching a goatherd leave with his herd at dawn. Using simple lines Sudha has focussed on using colours to highlight the emotion and story in each painting. Her latest work on silk depicting flowers is just as evocative. These paintings are done in tapestry style letting the flowing silk highlight the emotion behind each flower.

A member of the Navi Mumbai art society and Art beats foundation Pune, Sudha has taken part in their group exhibitions and worked to promote art amongst the youth. She is a wellknown art instructor throughout Navi Mumbai, having judged many art contests for schools, colleges, and clubs in the city. In 2020 Sudha moved her art classes and workshops online with the aim of using art therapy to support people’s mental health during the lockdown. She has conducted more than 100 workshops so far.

With the firm belief of giving back to society all the love and admiration she gets, Sudha has devoted her time towards helping Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram in Navi Mumbai area. She has also taught painting with simple day to day objects to senior citizens via Getsetup India platform.