Born inThiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India

Mini Biography

Educator and professional artist Chitra Ramanathan's current series of predominantly large-scale multi-media paintings portray the mental emotion of happiness as a visual entity through intense colors and multiple layers of textures that attract light from various angles, pushing the boundaries of her paintings beyond the confines of a two-dimensional surface. They are inspired by short-lived garden blooms and constantly changing seasons in nature, characteristics that attribute to the ephemeral, fleeting and enticingly beautiful happiness' "formless form": a phrase she has coined to describe her concept. The hint of circles almost always present in her works signify the cycle of human life: trying times followed by happy phases in a positive sense, and of life and rebirth influenced by her roots from India.

Her paintings have been described as "tactile works that resonate with a quiet harmony" and "Simply luxurious" by Manhattan Arts, New York. To quote from an excerpt from an interview with the artist, "Chitra's paintings exemplify her love of nature as well as the subjectivity of each individual's unique pursuit of happiness. Her painting procedure often entails making mental notes of a scene in nature, including the lighting, colors, and textures. She then uses these impressions in her studio to replicate the subject matter in an abstracted form, using rich physical textures, intense colors, and varied media".

Member, Committee on Cultural Diversity Practices, College Art Association, New York. 2007-2010. (Active member of CAA since 1997 & Member, Services to Artists Committee from 2003-06).

She was educated at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, USA: Master of Business Administration Concentration: Arts Administration & Human Resources Art Internship: New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York 1997.

University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honors) Major: Painting 1993.

Stella Maris College, Chennai, India: Bachelor of Fine Arts, 1979.
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