Sheetal Gattani

"It's a give-and-take. I give my impressions to it; I get my expressions and even identity from it. My painting introduced me to the being that I am in a social context."Born in Mumbai in 1968, Sheetal Gattani never believed she would be an artist when she was in school or college. She first went to the Sir JJ School of Art aspiring to become qualified to teach art to children. Gattani obtained a diploma in Art Education from that institution in 1990, and then because she became so taken up by the idea of painting, went on to complete her Master?s degree in painting there as well.Now, a well-established abstractionist and a teacher of art at the Convent of Jesus and Mary School, who has mastered the medium of watercolour, Gattani paints with a confidence and flair that is a rare sight amongst watercolourists.?In 2001, at the Chemould Art Gallery, one of the few solo exhibitions of her work that Mumbai has seen, the eminent artist and fellow abstractionist Melhi Gobhai admitted that he was apprehensive about her work at first because most contemporary abstract art tends to take a path that most often leads to a "dry sterility". He was pleasantly surprised, however, to see Gattani?s work, and said that she had, "...not only charted a course that has steered clear of these dangers but she has returned from her journey with paintings that seem to be throbbing new life-forms from another world yet to be created and totally her own."?Her earthy, roughly textured paintings, with their highly reduced visual vocabulary, are built with several layers of watercolours, which in some places erupt on the surface and cause the paintings to resemble flaking, damp walls. With the weight of the many layers of colour almost equal to that of the paper, it is only natural that the surface might bulge or tear, but for Gattani this is as natural and as much a part of her work as anything else. Beginning with a simple piece of black paper, the artist instinctively chooses her colours and the time she needs to switch hues. There is nothing predetermined about her work.Gattani only knows her painting is complete when it "seduces" and "talks" to her. The artist understands her role as a simple middleman or midwife, aiding in a birthing process that was always meant to b. she says, "...in any case, it's a creation that was meant to be, I just happened to be the tool. When it was being done, that was the moment of wholeness, without being aware of it. Which, of course, has seeds in a contrived effort of sitting down, letting go of the palette, the brush and you." This seems like a process that wouldn?t need any formal training in fine art, but Gattani is emphatic when she says, "Learning must precede unlearning."Sheetal Gattani has taken part in several group exhibitions, and has recently had a spate of successes with her solo shows.?The artist lives and works in Mumbai.