Karthik

I am Karthik Shetty, an artist based in Bangalore, India. I specialise in traditional media with contemporary themes.

Most often, I draw inspiration from my immediate cultural landscape – India offers a perennial source of history, folklore and magic, even in it’s most domestic setting. I have found that this muse rewards close observation. Painting people from my immediate surrounding, engaged in their vocation, is an another unfiltered source of ideas.

Atmarasa is a portmanteau of atma, the eternal soul, and rasa, the essence, in all art, in any form. The name alludes to the way art affects the sensitive spectator, at different levels.

I love the challenge that watercolour inherently presents as a medium, and enjoy its fluid possibilities. When I paint with watercolours, the feeling is natural, unforced – all I’m doing is prodding the pigments to settle gently to a designated corner or space. As a medium, I find it easier to set-up, paint, and put-away. Watercolours allow me to steal a few minutes