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| Meet Adity |
During my time overseas, I’ve had the good fortune to meet talented artists and crafters from all over the world. While in Bucharest, Romania I met creative and gracious
Adity Chakravarti. Adity has lived - and created - all over the world, accompanying her husband, a diplomat in the Indian Foreign Service.
I recently caught up with Adity, who is now living in Dublin. May I introduce you to the world and work of this inspiring artist?
You have traveled and lived in many places on this planet – China, Switzerland, Bangladesh, Canada, Tanzania, Romania, and now Ireland. How has this transient life impacted your artistic expression?
I am an inquisitive person by nature. I tend to get ecstatic over little things that I see - a pebble on soil, a drop on a leaf, the angle of a face in the right light. So when I move to a new place I like to get out and absorb the sounds and sights around me - then after it has got stored somewhere inside my brain I get an urge to reproduce it in my paintings (or more recently to write about it). In Canada it was the flaming red of maple leaves against a cobalt blue of the sky that got me painting on burnt wood from my fireplace. In Tanzania, I found I was painting images with the orange-brown of the African soil, the lush green of the vegetation, the ebony of the African skin and the brilliant patterns of the garment called 'kanga'.
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| On a Balcony in Zanzibar - acrylic on burnt wood |
In Romania it was impressions of churches, arches, angels and monks in the colors of Maramures in autumn. The visuals have changed each time I have moved with the constant being my medium of acrylic on burnt wood and gouache on paper.
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| Forever - gouache on handmade khadi paper |
What person or place has influenced your art the most?
Perhaps my father. He was a greatly loved doctor in our hometown, Allahabad, in India. But he was the most incredibly artistic and creative person I have known. I remember him digging out roots of old rose plants from his beloved garden and showing us siblings how to visualize a running horse, a walking man in them. He would then fashion them into beautiful sculptures. He taught us how to arrange a single rose with an arched twig and make it look incredibly beautiful and indeed, to design and redesign our garden, breaking it up into interesting corners and sections. He later designed and got craftsmen to make simple bamboo devices for physically challenged people - each one effective, cheap and beautiful in its simplicity. I can go on...
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| In harmony - gouache on handmade khadi paper |
If you could spend time with a contemporary artist or creative person, who would it be?
It would be a miniature painter from Jaipur. I could spend hours watching him (they are usually male painters - the Rajasthani women do exquisite traditional embroidery) move his very fine brush with natural colors over a face, building layers to give depth and contour and then make intricate folds of patterned fabric. I find it mesmerizing. I met one of them Shri Janki Das in Jaipur - he was a simple man and worked out of his tiny, humble home in the middle of a busy bazaar. He had his little desk and a lamp and his paints next to him on a mat on the floor. So no studio, no fuss about privacy and happy to have me (or anyone else) by his side, watching.
You have worked with a variety of media – wood, canvas, gold foil, clay, acrylics, gouache. Do you have a favorite medium, one you seem to always return to?
I keep going back to burnt wood. I am fascinated by the fact that wood can be carved, burnt, darkened and it exists everywhere. I love the texture it provides. It is wonderful to run your hands over it and feel the very natural medium. I also like to remember the fact that everything in life is transient. And since wood is burnt everywhere - it is a reminder of this simple fact.
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| Amun Ra in profile - acrylic, gold foil on burnt wood |
You recently moved to Dublin. What do you like most about the city?
I like Dublin (and Ireland) for two reasons. One, its people - they are kind and very friendly. I went to a big supermarket soon after I arrived in Dublin. I was looking for disposable cups. I found a salesman and asked him. He led me to the cups, was apologetic about the slightly high prices and guided me to the cheapest similar product! I have not seen that happening anywhere else. And two, its proximity to natural beauty. The
Wicklow mountains are just 15 minutes from south Dublin. There you have sweeps of moors, mountains dotted with lakes and the incredible bogs. It is breathtakingly beautiful.
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| Wicklow mountains, Ireland |
What three things do you miss most about India?
I miss the warmth of family and stimulation that I get from the almost constant, chaotic movement of such a variety of people as in India. I also miss the cheap street markets and food . And also the presence of beautiful, affordable craft everywhere.
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| Krishna and Radha - acrylic on burnt wood |
What are some of your favorite things to do in Dublin? Any special spot you would like to share?
I like wandering its streets and stare at beautiful homes and catch glimpses of life going on inside them. I also love to go to Glenmacnass Valley in the Wicklow mountains. It is a desolate, isolated stretch of wild bog land. In the past I had only vaguely read about bogs but did not quite know what it was actually like. It is an incredible scenery - just clumps of low grass and heather bushes - almost miles of it. I sit there by the roadside or in the car, depending on how windy it is (and it can be terribly windy!) and just look. Up there I feel as though I am the only person on this earth and my mind stays strangely empty.
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| Wicklow mountains, Ireland |
I can't wait to see what Adity will paint next. Wicklow mountain landscapes? Whatever she creates, I know it will be beautiful. That's the world of Adity.
To learn more about Adity Chakravarti and to see more of her lovely pieces, visit her at
Something Special.
To read about other inspiring artists, click
here.
