An Artist in the Family

In the year 1990, at the age of 61, my Aunt, Padma, was felled by a stroke that left her paralysed on her left side. The fact that she pulled through and retrieved sufficient motor function through seven years of rehabilitative therapy, left her convinced that there was some divine dispensation in this, and perhaps some unfinished work remained for her to complete.
She had been a painter and the only activity that was really open to her, given her physical condition, was to return to her paint brushes again.

"Flowers are the smile of the Divine", said the Mother of Pondicherry. At a time when I saw only colour and beauty in flowers, I owe it to her that she opened my eyes to their divinity." Being a devotee of the Mother from Aurobindo Ashram, it was as if Padma was called to make this the theme of a series of paintings on flowers that figure so prominently in the Indian religious ritual.

The paintings were displayed in an Exhibition in the Shrishti Gallery at Hotel Chola Sheraton, Chennai, from the 4th. to the 9th. April, 1999, under the thematic title "A Divine Thought - Flowers for Deities".

These paintings became her offering...in a sense, a garland of paintings on flowers rather than the garland itself.

Five of these paintings are reproduced here.