Description

Chitra Ramanathan recently returned from a residency in France, refreshing a pre-existing relationship with that region that was inspirational to her creating a by now known body of work. The painter, art educator and muralist completed a residency at the Camac Centre D'Art at Marnay sur Seine, France in April 2010 upon an invitation and grant offered by Artistay. During her month-long stay in France, she developed a series of plein air conceptual landscapes on wood panels and canvases using them as inspiration for large-scale versions in her studio in the United States.

Says Chitra, "working again in France was an experience that brought memories of my extended visit to Paris and Monet's garden at Giverny in 1992. Little did I realize that it would inspire a large body of work on the theme of gardens based on which I compared the emotion of happiness to the fleeting and cyclical characteristics of ephemeral garden blooms. Here I was in 2010, visiting Giverny and exploring the French countryside, with a similar opportunity to create a variety of conceptual landscapes both en plein air and through the windows of my artist studio at Marnay".

Chitra Ramanathan’s predominately large-scale body of mixed-media paintings are characterized by intense colors and multiple layers of textures that interact with light to "challenge the boundaries of their two-dimensional surfaces". Her uniquely textured, intensely colourful paintings are inspired by short-lived garden blooms and cyclical seasons both of which the artist compares with the continually evolving, ephemeral, fleeting happiness with its "formless form', a phrase coined to describe her concept. Hints of circles signify the human life-cycle, trying times followed by happy phases and of life and rebirth influenced by her roots in India. Her paintings on varied surfaces have been described as "tactile works that resonate with a quiet harmony" by Manhattan Arts International magazine. 

Complete biography, images of original paintings, videos of invitatational  site-specific public art installations both temporary and permanent, press reviews, exhibitions, academic affiliations and several other links are at http://www.chitraramanathan.com/.

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