The works of Bengaluru-based artist Anuradha Bhaumik are decidedly avant-garde and unconventional. Instead of a canvas backdrop, her works are done on fabric stretched on an embroidery hoop and wrought with needle and cotton thread instead of paint and brushes. But the output is not a vintage floral display. Instead, they are portraits of contemporary living centred round the living room, where the sofa takes centre stage, together with a pet cat and potted plants on ledges, to become the expressions of daily living, uplifting the mundane to an elevated art form..
Unlike others of her ilk who graduate from art schools, this unique art maker honed her skills while recuperating from a bout of chickenpox, when she was five. Her mother, in an attempt to keep her from infecting the neighbourhood children, taught her a few simple stitches on an old handkerchief. ‘ I was hooked’, she confesses and has continued to take forward her talent for the last three decades. Today, this unique embroiderer-artist is acclaimed by the Society for Embroidered Work , London, be deservedly acclaimed in USA, South America and London.
Not just an embroider-painter of domestic bliss, her works are reflections of her true self. ‘The setting is my way of relating to the sense of individual comfort derived within one’s own space.’
Besides the homily of personal ease the works are also a demonstration of Anuradha’s desire to exploit her resources to the maximum. ‘The scraps of material I use to create the forms are bits from my mother’s dresses post alteration, because she is a very petite size and all her clothes need to be custom fitted.
Naturally, the artist is in no hurry to churn out her art in a hurry. A dedicated creator, she spends an eight-hour daily grind to conceive and sketch her ideated images, using washable ink to make changes along the way.
