Veenita Chendvankar is a visual storyteller, weaving together essences of classical mythology and everyday experiences within her lyrical compositions. Painting with acrylic colours, over the years she has developed and mastered techniques of layering the canvas surface with pigment, producing softly tinted backgrounds against which mobile figures are playfully juxtaposed. The scenes are an ode to the environment, teeming with varied flora and fauna, both imagined and real in representation. The characters and creatures that inhabit these worlds are often hybrid and they merge the best of human and animal nature, while also connecting humanity with divinity.

In the background of her distinctive style is her fascination with folk and indigenous visual cultures, and the aesthetics of traditional art that she was introduced to during her academic years. She studied forms and motifs from various streams of rural art including Madhubani, Warli, and Gond; she observed designs on textiles, and reflected on the qualities of Indian miniature painting and classical mural works like those found at the ancient Ajanta and Ellora caves. Closer to home, she was influenced by the historical stream of specialised Ganjifa card painting on wood, that now has very few practitioners in the Sawantwadi region bordering Goa, her native land. She processed her intensive exploration through repeated image-making exercises, and worked on creating her unique style in which meticulous drawing, fine texture and luminous colours unite.

...With a degree in fine art specialising in mural design, Veenita’s artistic techniques also blossomed under the guidance of her artist father Sadguru Chendvankar, an ex-Professor of art. An expert at tonal variations and colour theory, his presence expanded her learnings, as well as her focus on building an individualistic expression. Veenita’s practice revolves around experimentation with colour, particularly the unexpected and unusual shades that arise from tertiary mixes. She often makes annotations of colour-recipes, that she refers to and reuses very much like scientific formulae. The backgrounds she builds in her paintings are made up of coatings of acrylic pigments, applied deftly with rollers to create richly textured fields. Similar to the experience of pareidolia, Veenita sees and recognises varied forms within these layers, and builds them into complex narrative compositions. She plays with further layering and organic divisions in order to reveal and conceal, unify and separate forms, adding to the effect of floating figures in dream-like landscapes.

Describing her work, she says ‘’I confess to be a dreamer, and my works are the ethereal manifestation of these nocturnal journeys - a delicate collage of memories and fantasies”. Poetically connecting with forms that emerge from her sub-conscious, Veenita sees humanity as inseparable from nature, as she populates a world full of whimsical figures and benign creatures. Mythological tales that are naturally attuned to magical happenings and otherworldly attributes match perfectly with her visual vocabulary that celebrates acceptance and love.

Positioned within a lineage of artists whom she admires, including masters like Laxman Pai, K.G. Subramanyan and Madhvi Parekh, Veenita creates imagery that builds bridges between indigenous and international sensibilities, between traditional and modern ways of making.

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