And the Flowers Bloomed

Artist Chameli Ramachandran brings out the simplicity of a rather complex world in her calligraphic works.

Written by Vandana Kalra

August 21, 2015 12:00 AM IST

4 min read

chameli ramachandran, rabindranath tagore, artist, artist chameli ramachandran, art, chameli ramachandran art, india news

Chameli Ramachandran (above); her work on display at Vadehra Art Gallery in Delhi (Source: Express Photo by Praveen Khanna)

Named Chameli after the fragrant jasmine flower by Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore, she has carried it as a signifier of the mingling of Indian and Chinese cultures. After all, the two identities have shaped her life, and also her art, which has always been defined by poetic brushwork, a blend of ink and metallic colours that paint the turbulent waves, coconut palms and lotus flowers floating calmly in a pond.“My art is an immediate outcome of what I see and find impactful,” says the artist in a conversation at her Bharti Nagar home in Delhi. Across the city, Vadehra Art Gallery is holding her sixth solo. The reticent 75-year-old artist started showing her work a little more than two decades ago only. “I was working, but in private. Also, I was taking care of my family,” she says.

Wife of the more vocal and visible artist, A Ramachandran, Chameli preferred to stay away from the limelight, in a world of art that she had built for her self.

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Born to professor Tan Yun Shan, founder-director of Cheena Bhavana (Institute of Chinese Studies) at Visva Bharati University, Chameli and her six siblings grew up in the greens of Santiniketan, studying Bengali and humming Rabindrasangeet. She referred to the same Rajasthani miniatures, Kalighat paintings and Ajanta murals that influenced Nandalal Bose and Ramkinkar Baij, and even approached the latter with her own works in her teens. “I used to go to Baij to show him my work. Of course he was too senior and I was too young but he was encouraging nevertheless,” she says.

Marriage brought her to Delhi, but the childhood influences were ingrained too deeply to be forgotten. So when Chameli picked the brush, she instinctively turned to calligraphic patterns. She laboriously ground ink tablets to prepare them for painting, supplementing them with bottled ink. “The texture, if you do it on your own, is so much richer,” she says. The patterns came from close surroundings. If in the beginning she painted garden-varieties such as hibiscus, gardenia and the peepal outside her Delhi home, frequent trips to her husband’s native Thiruvananthapuram inspired her to capture the coconut palms and lotuses that abound there, and the rocky outcrops on the beaches. The cluster of coniferous trees and snow-capped mountains near her son’s North America home, too, make an appearance.

While free brush strokes remain her trademark, subtle changes have taken place over the years. The lotus flower, for instance, has blossomed and now has a touch of metallic sheen added to the undersides of the lotus-pad. “It’s a fascinating flower, ethereally beautiful and with a significance in several eastern countries,” says Chameli, who, along with her husband, has also illustrated several books for children based on tales they narrated to their kids. “Our books were born from stories we told them. The stories that kept them interested and opened a new world of innocence for us,” says Chameli.

At home, too, she is the introvert who lets her husband be their public face, and is happy to let her work do the talking.

Vandana Kalra

Vandana Kalra is an art critic and Deputy Associate Editor with The Indian Express. She has spent more than two decades chronicling arts, culture and everyday life, with modern and contemporary art at the heart of her practice. With a sustained engagement in the arts and a deep understanding of India’s cultural ecosystem, she is regarded as a distinctive and authoritative voice in contemporary art journalism in India. Vandana Kalra's career has unfolded in step with the shifting contours of India’s cultural landscape, from the rise of the Indian art market to the growing prominence of global biennales and fairs. Closely tracking its ebbs and surges, she reports from studios, galleries, museums and exhibition spaces and has covered major Indian and international art fairs, museum exhibitions and biennales, including the Venice Biennale, Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Documenta, Islamic Arts Biennale. She has also been invited to cover landmark moments in modern Indian art, including SH Raza’s exhibition at the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the opening of the MF Husain Museum in Doha, reflecting her long engagement with the legacies of India’s modern masters. Alongside her writing, she applies a keen editorial sensibility, shaping and editing art and cultural coverage into informed, cohesive narratives. Through incisive features, interviews and critical reviews, she brings clarity to complex artistic conversations, foregrounding questions of process, patronage, craft, identity and cultural memory. The Global Art Circuit: She provides extensive coverage of major events like the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Serendipity Arts Festival, and high-profile international auctions. Artist Spotlights: She writes in-depth features on modern masters (like M.F. Husain) and contemporary performance artists (like Marina Abramović). Art and Labor: A recurring theme in her writing is how art reflects the lives of the marginalized, including migrants, farmers, and labourers. Recent Notable Articles (Late 2025) Her recent portfolio is dominated by the coverage of the 2025 art season in India: 1. Kochi-Muziris Biennale & Serendipity Arts Festival "At Serendipity Arts Festival, a 'Shark Tank' of sorts for art and crafts startups" (Dec 20, 2025): On how a new incubator is helping artisans pitch products to investors. "Artist Birender Yadav's work gives voice to the migrant self" (Dec 17, 2025): A profile of an artist whose decade-long practice focuses on brick kiln workers. "At Kochi-Muziris Biennale, a farmer’s son from Patiala uses his art to draw attention to Delhi’s polluted air" (Dec 16, 2025). "Kochi Biennale showstopper Marina Abramović, a pioneer in performance art" (Dec 7, 2025): An interview with the world-renowned artist on the power of reinvention. 2. M.F. Husain & Modernism "Inside the new MF Husain Museum in Qatar" (Nov 29, 2025): A three-part series on the opening of Lawh Wa Qalam in Doha, exploring how a 2008 sketch became the architectural core of the museum. "Doha opens Lawh Wa Qalam: Celebrating the modernist's global legacy" (Nov 29, 2025). 3. Art Market & Records "Frida Kahlo sets record for the most expensive work by a female artist" (Nov 21, 2025): On Kahlo's canvas The Dream (The Bed) selling for $54.7 million. "All you need to know about Klimt’s canvas that is now the most expensive modern artwork" (Nov 19, 2025). "What’s special about a $12.1 million gold toilet?" (Nov 19, 2025): A quirky look at a flushable 18-karat gold artwork. 4. Art Education & History "Art as play: How process-driven activities are changing the way children learn art in India" (Nov 23, 2025). "A glimpse of Goa's layered history at Serendipity Arts Festival" (Dec 9, 2025): Exploring historical landmarks as venues for contemporary art. Signature Beats Vandana is known for her investigative approach to the art economy, having recently written about "Who funds the Kochi-Muziris Biennale?" (Dec 11, 2025), detailing the role of "Platinum Benefactors." She also explores the spiritual and geometric aspects of art, as seen in her retrospective on artist Akkitham Narayanan and the history of the Cholamandal Artists' Village (Nov 22, 2025). ... Read More

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