"Royal Chhatris" paintings by Natasha Kumar

Unique hand painting etching, in Moongia dark green with 22ct gold leaf.

Art and India are in Natasha Kumar’s genes. On her mother’s English side, she comes from a line of established artists; whilst her father’s Indian heritage can be traced back to Kashmir and Afghanistan, via stories of partition and lost family gold.

“I paint contemporary India, as I find it, from village scene to market place or palace view, but I’m particularly inspired by Indian women. Not just the bold colours or fall and fold of a diaphanous sari, those quintessential things that we find so alluring about them. Rather by capturing a moment of their lives, veiled, glimpsed or elusive, they help me on my own artistic journey in seeking a fuller sense of my heritage. After all, every painter paints themselves and my great question is what can I know of their lives that might have been mine”. 

Kumar studie printmaking for seven years at Manchester University and Venice Accademia di Belle Arti before returning to London to complete an MA at Camberwell College of Art in 2000. Since then, Kumar has exhibited extensively, with recent exhibitions including annual shows at the Royal Geographical Society and a five-month Solo exhibition at the Southbank in London.

Her distinctive work has also caught the interest of curators selecting for a diverse range of venues including the VIP Lounge at Heathrow, The Cinnamon Club, The Institute of Neurology, The Taj Hotel, Victoria, Asia House, London and for The Arts For India event at the Saatchi Gallery, London. In 2019, the Soho House Group acquired a series of Kumar’s works for their latest venture in Mumbai. Kumar has received numerous awards for her printmaking, the most recent being the Rise Art Print Prize, for which the artist, Harland Miller, selected her work. 

Natasha Kumar:  inspired by the architecture of India

Crumbling palaces, echoing pillared halls, mesmerizing carving and dreams in stone are the inspiration for Natasha Kumar’s latest unique works on paper that capture the essence of Indian architecture. They are the spaces and elements she seeks out on her journeys around North India. The sense of place, rich emotion and meaning that she finds, Natasha brings back to us conveyed through rich colours, intricate design, subtle and evocative textures – but always with a twist.