Kavitha Prasad, an accomplished artist , architect and educator combines ideas, shades, shadows and lines to create works with great emotional range and depth. Painting in watercolour from an early age, Kavitha has a unique style in this medium. “I love the way light reflects off the paper through the pigment,” she says of her fascination with watercolour. Her art speaks in many moods: reflective, reverent, whimsical, feminine, angry, outspoken, humorous, thoughtful, nostalgic and practical. Her eclectic use of pale and dark pigments, light and heavy overlays, flowing and almost grid-like lines, and small and large formats signify her as an artist who continues to evolve and experiment.
Kavitha was born in 1964 in Chennai into a family that treasures art and heritage. Kavitha’s passion for art was recognized at an early age by her mother Lakshmi Krishnamurthy, herself a doyen of traditional Indian art and restoration and a pupil of the eminent artist Mr.K.Sreenivasulu. Kavitha, under Mr.A.Anjaneyulu’s tutelage, began working with small format studies of nature, both landscapes and skyscapes. “Later I started painting larger watercolours, experimenting with the paper and pigments, to create more atmospheric pictures,” she says.
Kavitha was an all-rounder at Church Park, where she did her schooling. She studied architecture at the prestigious Anna University School of Architecture, and the level of detail in her work reflects her architectural training.
“Some of my works are architectural studies, delineated solid objects, street-side shops, and recycled scrap all composed as elevations that have been superimposed over one another creating a sense of depth, and a play of light and shadows on the objects, creating a sense of mystery,” she says.
Kavitha studied Visual Arts at the Rukmini Devi College of Fine Arts and worked at the Ceramic Studio at Lalit Kala Akademi, Chennai.
A busy artist, architect and educator who relishes her art, Kavitha admires the watercolours of J.M.W. Turner, and the architecture of Antoni Gaudi. “I enjoy the quiet seclusion and introspective time painting gives me. I always feel invigorated later,” she says.
Kavitha’s evocative work has won her many admirers in India and abroad. Her watercolour, acrylic and mixed media works are in the collections of the Corporate Office of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, the Residency Hotel in Chennai, the ICF Museum in Chennai, Goethe Institut, Chennai, DIAL, ( Delhi International Airport Limited) and private collections in India, Taiwan, Singapore, Germany, UK, USA, and the U.A.E.