Members of the Collective
Anu Gupta started painting as a hobby during her student days, but it became her passion often learning the techniques and itricasies of painting from Jumana Topiwala her first and only teacher. Anu enjoys working with pastels, oils and watercolors.
Dharinie Khara studied textil design from Sophia Polytechnic College, has an art degree from the Bombay Maharashtra Art Board. Dharinie loves to paint landscapes and seascapes, she has participated in many group painting exhibitions.
Painting is Dolly Dhillon's passion from a very young age, the past five years she's been focusing on learning technique. Dolly works with three mediums, oils, watercolors and pastels and loves working on tribal themed paintings.
What started as a hobby eight years ago for Jaya Narasimha Rao today has developed into a passion; the last 3 years she has focused on painting Buddha in myriad forms as a way of personal meditation. Watercolors are her forte and she enjoyes using oils and acrylics as well. Jaya draws inspiration from sculpture and give credit to her creative hand to her mother and Jumana Topiwala. She's participated in 5 exhibitions under the art works banner, she has also been featured at the Lakshana Art Gallery, Hyderabad. Jaya's paintings have sold as far as Los Angeles, California.
What developed as her hobby eight years ago, Latha Raja in the past five years, paints flowers which are taken from nature, she is attracted to work with earth colors and that is the reason she choose also tribal life as a subject matter. She paints with water colors and oils. Latha gives credit to her kind hearted teacher Jumana Topiwala for her acquired skills.
Monika Rekhi an Interior Designer by profession took a break from work in 2001 when moved to ‘City of Destiny’ Vishakhapatnam she started learning art under the guidance of Jummana Topiwala. Her work deals mostly with charcoal and acrylics. Rekhi has participated in 5 exhibitions organised collectively by Artworks. In 2006 Rekhi held an exhibition in Lakshna Art Gallery, Hyderabad. Currently based in Chennai she continues with her love and passion for painting, a journey of creation that started in Vizag.
Padmaja Menon took up painting as an experimental attempt to constructively utilize spare time under the guidance of Jummana Topiwala gradually turning into one of the most stimulating experience for Padmaja. She had to discontinue for a couple of years when she started working for HSBC but was overjoyed to resume recently after quitting her job, finding much more satisfaction in fine arts than the mundane work in office. She uses her innate perception of colors to explore the world,painting primarily with water colors, although her works also include pastels and oil paintings. She focuses on painting mostly figures and a few landscapes
Renuka Jaganmoher took up painting as a hobby after she left her full time teaching profession four years ago. Today Renuka is a keen observer of nature, the fine details and vibrant colors are reflected in her watercolors. Renuka also gives credit to Jumana Topiwala for teaching her to go forward. Renu plans to diversify and widen her repertoire.
Sandra Parra graduated in 2007 with an MFA from the Hoffberger School of Painting. She studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Czech Republic and later received a bachelor’s degree in Drawing from Minnesota State University, Moorhead. Currently she resides in southern India’s costal city named Vizag, due to her many travels, her work focuses on re-contextualizing subcultures and the individual and actively organizing collectives with regional artists.
