Preetha Kannan

Lives and works in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Artist statement

I live in Mumbai, India. I love color ever since I remember; it was my passion as well as a vehicle of expression. I think through color and that is the reason for my intense painterly collaboration with it. For the last many years, I followed a process. I created a catalogue of colors with scientific precision, numbering hundreds of subtly differentiated hues. I would mix the color to near perfection and choreograph its multi layered application with absolute control. This painting process that I had evolved after years of experimentation led me to paint hundreds of works on subjects like land, water and air exploring the great global theme of climate change. Typically on canvas. Soon I reached the climactic point of this process and there arose within me a powerful desire to break the shackles of this analytical and calculated way of art making. Simultaneously something serendipitous occurred: COVID PANDEMIC. By sheer chance I found myself in another city, Chennai away from my Mumbai studio set-up for months on end. But I had to had to paint. Without a studio, I went back to bare basics. Paper on the floor, watercolor and brushes. Something extraordinary happened. My love for color, the heart and core of my painting, erupted in a novel manner. Would it be appropriate to call it a torrential outpouring of nostalgia for those halcyon student days of painting? Every day I would paint like a maniac and post the completed works on my Instagram account. Please see it to get an...

Artwork