"India Travels" Diptych by Ambika Thiagarajan, Acrylic on Canvas

This diptych represents a combination of looking out the train as well as car windows in India. Something about the beautiful dense sap greens, some very peculiar yellow greens that I just can't seem to find here in America, speak to my soul. What I truly savor are those little moments and holes that you can find the distant sky in between the stunning Desi vegetation....as if to break the unevenness of mother nature. An unevenness, so phenomenal, that somehow it all makes sense to me.

Ambika Thiagarajan was born in New Jersey in 1994. Within two and a half years, she moved to India with her family. She primarily grew up in Chennai, India, where she attended school and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at Stella Maris College. She then went on to pursue a Post-Baccalaureate in Fine Art from the Maryland Institute College of the Arts. She is now a full-time Artist and Art teacher based in Southern California.

"I take photos during my travel or even from simply a morning walk down the hill and come back to my studio to paint it. Within this painting, I include the actual visual experience of it, the imaginative component from my mind and the emotional sentiment of the moment. Memories really draw me and help me create the feeling and the journey through it rather than just what it looked like. Landscapes and seascapes are what guide this process of abstraction".