Fleeting Glory

"Fleeting glory", a two-paneled painting with acrylics on canvas, featuring a fleeting glance of thick foliage framing roadways while traveling past in high speed vehicles.

Born in India, Chitra Ramanathan is an established contemporary Indian American visual artist who lives, exhibits and teaches painting in the United States. She is best known for her series of colourful abstract paintings with acrylic as prime medium, often combined with intricately layered carefully chosen permanent materials, described as “happy art”. Her career emerged through solo and exhibitions in different art galleries on Broadway, New York City during the mid 1990s, with reviews in publications including Manhattan Arts Magazine.

During a study abroad visit to Paris, France in Summer 1992, Chitra was influenced by the Abstract Expressionist’s works portraying mental emotions, initially inspired by Wassily Kandinsky’s colourful works and frequenting Claude Monet’s Garden in Giverny. The theme of current and ongoing series of paintings that followed exude a fresh, glossy quality, the luminous paint surfaces frequently created in large dimensions to convey an expanse of happy, joyful and noticed therapeutic feelings. Some eclectic examples are “Joyful Musings”, “A Rapturous Acclamation” “Symphony” and the “Melody of Seasons” included in the portfolio. In general, the recurring theme in her works is inspired by her varied life experiences of living in different cultures and surroundings. Chitra explains. “My art is influenced conceptually by colourful flora in changing seasons where I live in the Unites States and my passion for gardening, besides borrowing from fantasy, dreams, and the melody of music. I also borrow from recollections of colourful festivals, costumes, reminiscent of my native India and the memory of creating floor pattern drawings called “Rangoli” during growing years.

However, each work is individually distinct with a record of acquisitions as stand- alone pieces.

An acrylic painting illustrates a vibrant landscape divided into two sections, often indicative of a diptych. The painting captures a meadow filled with an array of wildflowers primarily in shades of yellow, white, and blue. A blue creek meanders through the scene, enhancing the tranquility and natural beauty of the surroundings. The sky above is painted a light blue dotted with white, fluffy clouds. This landscape offers a diverse palette of colors, including yellow-green and blue-green tones, that coalesce to form a rich tapestry emblematic of a peaceful outdoor scene. Trees line the creek, their foliage contributing to the color diversity with hues of blue, green, and yellow. No text is apparent in the scene.