Flower Child

Colaba gallery Art Musings — after three years. “I had an agreement with Art Musings to do a show here,but I’m such a slow worker. I’m not happy until I have taken care of every little detail in the painting,” she laughs,adjusting her scarf around her neck. And there are enough and more details in her works. The Paris-based artist is well-known for first sketching her works,then filling in the colour and then once again outlining the figures with black ink. The final touch includes the addition of tiny,meticulously rendered patterns and motifs over large expanses of the work. The ultimate result is a painting with a rich,tapestry-like feel. However,in her new works at the exhibition,‘A Dreamer’s Labyrinth’,there is an added sense of volume to the figures she’s rendered,unlike the flatness of her previous works. “It was something that came to me quite suddenly the last time I was here,” she explains,in her heavily French-accented English.

The 39-year-old comes from a family of artists — her father is the celebrated Sakti Burman,and her cousin is Jayasri Burman,who is married to Paresh Maity. Maya,however,resisted being an artist for a long time — choosing to study architecture instead — and does not have formal training in painting. “It came to me while I was studying architecture that I loved only the parts where I had to sketch. And as far as architecture was concerned,I felt no affinity with the clean lines and minimalism of modern buildings. I was more attracted to styles such as the Gothic,with all their minute decorations.” This passion for baroque flourishes is obvious in the intricate silver band she was wearing around her neck.

Maya began by doing mainly pen and ink sketches,which she gradually began to fill in with colour. One wall at Art Musings,in fact,has a panel comprising smaller works that show Maya’s gradual evolution into the style she’s known for today. Superficially,it would seem that Maya draws a lot from her father’s style. Both do mainly figurative art,rendered in a fantastical,surreal manner. However,the resemblance stops there. The older Burman’s works have a wistful,melancholy quality inspired by murals while Maya’s works are more joyful,both in the colours she uses and the composition she executes. These usually feature full-cheeked and chubby-limbed children,playing with various fauna — rabbits,fish,butterflies. And of course,there are her signature flowers. “I draw flowers even when I’m doodling,” she laughs,“I get the idea from a horticultural book I have,but they’re nothing like the world has ever seen.”