Happily regarded as one of the most promising new talents in the Indian art scene, Arpa Mukhopadhyay is a contemporary visual artist from Pune. Though an engineer with a masters in English Literature, Arpa has harboured a special love for art since the age of six and has never stopped painting since.
From participating and winning various inter-school competitions to acing the Elementary and Intermediate examinations, Arpa took a very active interest in fine art since childhood. However, like most other meritorious students, she ended taking up Computer Engineering for graduation, a field very different from art. Continuing with her academic interests, she also completed her post-graduation in English Literature. Visual art, which was her childhood dream slowly became her hobby, which she pursued whenever there was a chance.
At work, she was brilliant and won many laurels as a successful product manager for different IT MNCs. Life however took a different turn in 2019, when she faced one of the darkest periods of her life, when the anchor of her life, her mother suddenly passed away. From anxiety and depression to physical ailments, Arpa faced them all after her mother’s demise. Then one fine day like a foul weather friend, art came to her rescue. Art made her happy during the gloomy days and she practiced painting every day. Arpa strongly started believing that art is the greatest miracle, and the greatest therapy known to mankind.
Eventually she gave up her long and gratifying career in IT and started pursuing her childhood passion of art professionally full time.
Arpa’s paintings are simple and evocative, bright, and vivid, something that everyone can appreciate and relate to. Her paintings are full of positivity and colour. Art, as she has experienced it has the power to lift the creator’s and viewer’s senses and bring happiness and joy. She wants her artworks to do just that. Though she has a versatile oeuvre and also enjoys working on different abstract themes, she is more popularly known for her Indian figurative paintings. A strong proponent of Indian culture, her figurative works are full of Indian traditional motifs, beautiful Indian women, and grand depictions of Indian deities.
Her paintings have brought to life stories from the Indian epics Like Ramayana and Mahabharata, while her veneration of Indian women has led to an entire series of Indian women, who are strong, while being extremely beautiful. Beauty in different forms is one of the highlights of her paintings, be it in the form of nature and innocence of the Indian women or the delicacy of the ornaments worn by the powerful figures from the Indian epics.
Arpa’s paintings can be found in private collections all over India and abroad. Her work has also been a part of numerous art exhibitions and art festivals in India and the world over. She also loves to exhibit her artworks online and has a strong social media presence on different platforms.
Unveiling our rendezvous with Arpa Mukhopadhyay
A. How many years you have been in the field of art and why?
I started painting since childhood and never stopped. So that is around three decades. However, I have been professionally pursuing it since the last three years.
B. What media you have been using so far?
I work mainly with Acrylic on canvas, and sometimes add elements of mixed media too. However from time to time I also enjoy working with graphite or charcoal on paper.
C. What media you are planning to explore in future?
Watercolour is an intense and tricky medium, albeit very mature and beautiful. I would like to explore it in the future.
D. What kind of uniqueness you spotlight using art?
Most of my paintings are figurative or semi-abstract. They are not realistic and hence most of the times are drawn from memory, or with the help of a cultural reference. Many of my painting subjects are inspired by India's rich culture and heritage, and one of the aims of the paintings is to build awareness of our culture as also to venerate the strength and beauty of Indian women. Most of my paintings have very intricate details, which is one of my specialities. My paintings also bring in a lot of positivity, peace, and tranquillity to the viewer.
Thanks Giving
The E Today is thankful to Arpa Mukhopadhyay for her valuable time and even to Mr. Hiral Shah, The Chief Editor; who has set up an one-of-its-kind global platform The Indian Gallery for promoting art along with Anjali Kaur Arora, who is well known x for her talk show ‘The Anjali Arora Talk Show’