Artist Profile: Suhita Shirodkar

Suhita Shirdokar spent her childhood drawing and chose to graduate in Graphic Design from New York's famous Pratt Institute to follow her passion. However, after years in advertising she realized that she'd moved far from doing what she loved best. A trip to Oaxaca, Mexico a few years ago inspired her to get back to sketching and there has been no looking back since.

I love how colourful, free flowing and ephemeral her paintings are. As she began sketching on a vacation, all her paintings are travel-inspired. Today, Suhita's is taking over SHP to take you on her travels around India. Travel with her watercolours to the ancient city of Tirunelveli in South India, then hike up to get a feel of the Goa of the Portuguese and then finally get a dose of spiritualism at Vanarasi. Take it away Suhita!

Tirunelveli, South India 

 The narrow street outside my in-laws home in Tirunelvelli, India. It's only this quiet on Sunday when all the shops are closed. I especially enjoyed capturing the 2 dogs peeking through the door. I bet atleast one of them is named Whitey!

 Kittu, the istri-wala has been in the neighborhood twice a week for atleast 15 years. With his crazily-heavy coal-filled iron, he is a fast disappearing breed. [Divya] This is my favorite image from the Tirunelveli series as I was hit by a wave of childhood memories of running to the istri-karan. 

Every little street in South India has a temple decorated with striped walls and colourfully painted gods, goddesses and demons.

Goa, Western India

Little chapel in Calangute, Goa. This lady and her child just stood around for a half hour, enjoying the cool evening breeze. A Vespa stood nearby.

3 hours from Goa, the Vidyadurg Fort near my parents mango farm in rural Maharashtra. My parents have an alphonso mango farm, with mangoes to die for.

Casa Fialho- We stayed at the house of our friend, Malcolm for the week in Goa. His front yard is a riot of color: lush tropical foliage, towering coconut palms. My kids played for hours in the red mud. (if you look really carefully, they're there among the riot of vegetation).

Varnasi, North India

Bright orange temple on the banks of the Ganges. I visited Varanasi a couple of days after a bomb blast had occurred, right at this spot. It was great to see the place crowded with people, not one of who seemed to be intimidated by what had occurred just 2 days before.   

My favorite sketch of this set. This one was a quick capture. I had just finished a longish sketch on the banks of the Ganges, and turned around to see the most beautiful light and reflections on the water. This piece best exemplifies my calligraphic and super-quick approach to my work. It took no longer than 15 minutes.

My favourite sketch of this set. The pujari waiting patiently for the lady to finish dressing before he continues a bunch of rituals performed prior to and after a dip in the Ganges. I loved capturing the warm morning light here.

I have it on first hand authority that Suhita completes her paintings extremely quickly, usually in under a few minutes. In Suhita's words, " I often have my 3 and 6 year old with me while I sketch, so I've adapted to working in the little windows of time I get before they're bored and want to move on! " She works exclusively on location and none of her paintings are ever re-touched again!

Suhita also paints lovely paintings of her current city San Francisco and other lovely locations from her travels.

To check them out visit her,
Flickr page
Blog: Sketch Away

And you can buy her paintings and prints at her Etsy store.

Thank you Sangita Ramachandran for introducing me to Suhita and her gorgeous paintings!

{Credit for all Images of Paintings Featured here go to Suhita Shirodkar}