The haunting face

A Tagore painting floats up often in artist Kavita Nayars imagination
When I started making portraits of my daughter in 2005,an image I had seen 35 years ago started haunting me. That image is the painting of a woman in ink wash,made by Rabindranath Tagore. It has stayed on in my memory since I saw it as an18-year-old fine arts student in Santiniketan.
It keeps coming to my mind especially when I make portraits of my daughter,who passed away last year. I must add though that it has no direct influence on my work.

The portrait is of a woman,her head covered and eyes vacant. It is neither melancholy nor happy and has a touch of Amedeo Modigiliani,the 19th century Italian expressionist painter. Tagore was a writer first,and he only began painting and sketching when he was in his late sixties.
Yet the clear strokes of his art were mesmerising,despite being very simple. This aspect of his struck me the first time I saw this portrait and continues to surprise me even today.