BIO
Artist Statement: Seemanthini
I don’t paint in a conventional way, I don’t use an easel. Sometimes I sit on the floor to paint, or on a stool, or stand on a ladder or make a multi-laddering system with stools atop small tables. When my paintings are small, my left hand holds the painting while I paint on the canvas with my right hand. For large paintings, I hang the big canvas on the wall to paint. In all these situations, I go back and forth to see work-in-progress of my paintings. I love the cross-legged sitting position to think and paint. Since childhood, I’ve passionately pencil-sketched faces and animals. My Forest Officer father exposed me to love for nature, fearlessness of wildlife and willingness to take creative risks. Encouraged by my husband, I transitioned to oil painting to explore my visual language.
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The grandeur of India’s ancient Hindu and Buddhist stone and metal sculptures spanning 320 BC to the 14th century captivate and inspire me. With luminous colours I reinterpret their solidity into three-dimensional expressions while retaining their original grace.
Oil painting allows me to breathe life into canvas, to emote stories with the interplay of illumination and contrast. So my flat painting surfaces transform carefully into sculptured effects, built-up with layers of colour and texture.
My own creative style, Reconstruct Realism, captures the tactile essence of ancient art in my paintings. My brush treatment enhances the contours of chisel marks, creating an illusion of weight and form. I use bright, sunset-inspired saturated colours to contemporize ancient forms, striking a balance between realism and reconstruction of realism.
My visual language is intuitive, deliberate, deeply personal. I re-interpret classical elements with a reconstructive metaphor for viewers to freshly see ancient art through Reconstruct Realism in contemporary times.
Biography: Seemanthini
EXHIBITIONS
Seemanthini was 10-years-old when her first solo exhibition was held. Her school teacher was so enamoured of her perfect sketches, she displayed them for a month in the classroom. Her turning point came in 2009 when she created and exhibited Hampi Ganesha, a painting that reflected her distinctive style of dramatic lighting, bold contrasts, and brisk, expressive strokes. Appreciated by art connoisseurs and Indian artists, this exhibition affirmed her evolving visual language. In 2017, Australian art professionals who had curated the international Indo Australian art exhibition, invited Seemanthini to participate. Her sunset toned painting series, inspired by Maharashtra’s 5th century BCE Ajanta Caves carved by Buddhist monks, drew wide acclaim from the media, critics, and viewing public at this exhibition. She has since exhibited at premier institutions like Chitrakala Parishad, Bangalore, and her works have found collectors across India, Australia, and Japan.
EARLY LIFE
Born in Yadgiri, Karnataka 1968, Seemanthini has nurtured her creativity since childhood. Her parents are deeply rooted in Indian classical art and dance, her two elder sisters are painters. So she naturally gravitated toward sketching whenever she had a pencil in hand and on any paper she could find, especially when classroom lectures were uninspiring. She drew facial expressions, body contours, details of jewellery, animals and mythological figures. With art in her blood and mind, she continued this passion through her medical science studies. Even today, sketching remains her sanctuary and creative release.
In 2005, with incessant encouragement from her doctor husband, she ventured into oil painting. Completing her first canvas measuring 5×3 feet made her feel intuitive and exhilarated. From then on, painting large canvases became her forte, even as she explored different art materials and learnt art techniques through hands-on experience. Over time, she transitioned to using professional-grade paints and tools.
ARTISTIC INCLINATION
Seemanthini’s chosen medium for storytelling is through oil painting that recreates the tactile essence of ancient Indian sculptures. With interplay of light and dark, she paints sculptural forms with strokes that mimic chisel marks. Her paintings reinterpret India’s ancient stone and metal sculptures through a contemporary lens, blending tradition with modern sensibility.
RECONSTRUCT REALISM
Seemanthini has masterminded her own artistry in a spectacular way. Her contemporary interpretation of ancient India’a art style has become her very own Reconstruct Realism style. Her paintings have deep meaning and substance, giving a sense of reformation to ancient Indian art. In a deliberate reconstructive form, she translates ancient Indian art to give it life with intricacy. This remodelled dimension can be considered the Reconstruction of Realism school of art. She is the only person to have established this path-breaking school of thought on ancient Indian art. And she is consistent in her Reconstruct Realism works of art.
With her joyful positive temperament, Seemanthini has developed her Reconstruct Realism style. By doing that, she is taking forward the long neglected work of contemporising ancient Indian art to establish its ideology, beauty and meaning in the global art world. Her Reconstruct Realism could become an art movement in future.
Artist Statement: Seemanthini
I don’t paint in a conventional way, I don’t use an easel. Sometimes I sit on the floor to paint, or on a stool, or stand on a ladder or make a multi-laddering system with stools atop small tables. When my paintings are small, my left hand holds the painting while I paint on the canvas with my right hand. For large paintings, I hang the big canvas on the wall to paint. In all these situations, I go back and forth to see work-in-progress of my paintings. I love the cross legged sitting position to think and paint. Since childhood, I’ve passionately pencil-sketched faces and animals. My Forest Officer father exposed me to love for nature, fearlessness of wildlife and willingness to take creative risks. Encouraged by my husband, I transitioned to oil painting to explore my visual language.
Read More
The grandeur of India’s ancient Hindu and Buddhist stone and metal sculptures spanning 320 BC to the 14th century captivate and inspire me. With luminous colours I reinterpret their solidity into three-dimensional expressions while retaining their original grace.
Oil painting allows me to breathe life into canvas, to emote stories with the interplay of illumination and contrast. So my flat painting surfaces transform carefully into sculptured effects, built-up with layers of colour and texture.
My own creative style, Reconstruct Realism, captures the tactile essence of ancient art in my paintings. My brush treatment enhances the contours of chisel marks, creating an illusion of weight and form. I use bright, sunset-inspired saturated colours to contemporize ancient forms, striking a balance between realism and reconstruction of realism.
My visual language is intuitive, deliberate, deeply personal. I re-interpret classical elements with a reconstructive metaphor for viewers to freshly see ancient art through Reconstruct Realism in contemporary times.
Biography: Seemanthini
EXHIBITIONS
Seemanthini was 10-years-old when her first solo exhibition was held. Her school teacher was so enamoured of her perfect sketches, she displayed them for a month in the classroom. Her turning point came in 2009 when she created and exhibited Hampi Ganesha, a painting that reflected her distinctive style of dramatic lighting, bold contrasts, and brisk, expressive strokes. Appreciated by art connoisseurs and Indian artists, this exhibition affirmed her evolving visual language. In 2017, Australian art professionals who had curated the international Indo-Australian art exhibition, invited Seemanthini to participate. Her sunset-toned painting series, inspired by Maharashtra’s 5th century BCE Ajanta Caves carved by Buddhist monks, drew wide acclaim from the media, critics, and viewing public at this exhibition. She has since exhibited at premier institutions like Chitrakala Parishad, Bangalore, and her works have found collectors across India, Australia, and Japan.
EARLY LIFE
Seemanthini was 10-years-old when her first solo exhibition was held. Her school teacher was so enamoured of her perfect sketches, she displayed them for a month in the classroom. Her turning point came in 2009 when she created and exhibited Hampi Ganesha, a painting that reflected her distinctive style of dramatic lighting, bold contrasts, and brisk, expressive strokes. Appreciated by art connoisseurs and Indian artists, this exhibition affirmed her evolving visual language. In 2017, Australian art professionals who had curated the international Indo-Australian art exhibition, invited Seemanthini to participate. Her sunset-toned painting series, inspired by Maharashtra’s 5th century BCE Ajanta Caves carved by Buddhist monks, drew wide acclaim from the media, critics, and viewing public at this exhibition. She has since exhibited at premier institutions like Chitrakala Parishad, Bangalore, and her works have found collectors across India, Australia, and Japan.
In 2005, with incessant encouragement from her doctor husband, she ventured into oil painting. Completing her first canvas measuring 5×3 feet made her feel intuitive and exhilarated. From then on, painting large canvases became her forte, even as she explored different art materials and learnt art techniques through hands-on experience. Over time, she transitioned to using professional-grade paints and tools.
ARTISTIC INCLINATION
Seemanthini’s chosen medium for storytelling is through oil painting that recreates the tactile essence of ancient Indian sculptures. With interplay of light and dark, she paints sculptural forms with strokes that mimic chisel marks. Her paintings reinterpret India’s ancient stone and metal sculptures through a contemporary lens, blending tradition with modern sensibility.
RECONSTRUCT REALISM
Seemanthini has masterminded her own artistry in a spectacular way. Her contemporary interpretation of ancient India’a art style has become her very own Reconstruct Realism style. Her paintings have deep meaning and substance, giving a sense of reformation to ancient Indian art. In a deliberate reconstructive form, she translates ancient Indian art to give it life with intricacy. This remodelled dimension can be considered the Reconstruction of Realism school of art. She is the only person to have established this path breaking school of thought on ancient Indian art. And she is consistent in her Reconstruct Realism works of art.
With her joyful positive temperament, Seemanthini has developed her Reconstruct Realism style. By doing that, she is taking forward the long neglected work of contemporising ancient Indian art to establish its ideology, beauty and meaning in the global art world. Her Reconstruct Realism could become an art movement in future.