Sharmila Thakur
Sharmila completed her early education at her mother’s school in Asansol. In 1972, she entered the portals of the prestigious Kala Bhavan, Santiniketan, to pursue a formal training in Fine Arts. Much of Sharmila’s visual vocabulary was informed by her extended time spent in the tribal regions of Jharkhand. She continued her artistic journey with traditional mediums such as watercolour, oil, and acrylic.
Over time, she also experimented with natural pigments derived from organic materials like turmeric (haldi), haritaki, leaves, seeds, clay, cow-dung, and even milk-based mediums. Her art reflects a deeply personal, emotive, and grounded aesthetics which she considers is her “own living document of experience.
Within her is the power to create, nurture, and transform.” – Diane Mariechild From her childhood, Sharmila was a quiet and introspective child, extremely alive to her immediate environment and her inner self. Her curiosity and responsiveness to her surroundings led her to incorporate discarded materials—plastic bags, stitched boldly onto canvas with expressive use of colour—into her practice. She later transitioned to creating abstract fluid forms using enamel paint on board and paper, and eventually explored relief painting on board and canvas with striking, raw and indigenous textures.
Sharmila has been working quietly and consistently, creating exquisite sculptures for her personal joy. She has expanded her repertoire by working with smallformat sculptural forms using iron net, plaster of Paris, paper-pulp, and discarded newspapers. Sharmila’s present body of work reflects her deeply personal journey of art and life. These three-dimensional forms in her art are finished with intricate motifs and drawings using acrylics. Sharmila’s approach to materials has always been intuitive and rooted in immediacy. She often uses what is available nearby, turning everyday objects into powerful mediums of expression.
