How a move to Goa sparked an awakening for this artist

It all started on a flirtatious note but took a passionate turn. When Darpan Kaur—a former marketing executive of liquor major Diageo—picked up the paintbrush for the first time at the age of 36, she had no inkling it would become her life’s calling.  

“I started painting as a hobby. In the beginning, it did not stir the kind of passion it does today. It grew on me. For me, my love affair with painting was not love-at-first-sight but it’s the kind that grows once you’re in a relationship,” says the contemporary abstract artist, who donned many hats before she encountered the artist within her.

The free sculptures that transform Panjim into an art gallery

IN LOVE WITH THE CANVAS

Today, not a day goes by without her dabbling her soul in the colours of paint. “Now, I’m deeply and madly in love. Some days, if I’m not able to paint due to a busy schedule, a few brushstrokesat the end of the day make me feel settled and ensures a good sleep.”

Kaur’s expressionistic and lyrical brushstrokes convey a wide array of moods, emotions and narratives that are understated but subliminally evoked.

Darpan KaurSome days, if I’m not able to paint due to a busy schedule, a few brushstrokes at the end of the day make me feel settled and ensures a good sleep

BRUSHSTROKES OF THE MIND

The Goa-based artist’s paintings penetrate into the farthest nook of the mind and soul to extract what could be buried in the deepest corner of our subconscious. She achieves this through a process, which begins with a thought and playfulbrushstrokes.  

That’s how Kaur’s paintings start taking shape. On a sultry summer morning, she sends out a prayer for rains and her paintbrush translates this thought running through her mind on the canvas. Colours frolic on her palette and canvases, vividly mirroring her mood.

The Goa-based artist’s paintings penetrate into the farthest nook of the mind and soul to extract what could be buried in the deepest corner of our subconscious.

LONGING IN EVERY STROKE

This stage of her painting process is less intense, and “the funnest” part. She completely gives in to her creative instinct, and lets her paintbrush make it come alive on canvases. The fervent desire for rainturns her canvas into a splash of pregnant grey—like a swirl of raincloud piercing through a sweltering summer day.

She confesses about being obsessed with the colour grey. At the final stage, when Kaur puts flesh on the bones of her paintings, it gets a bit intense. It’s when her thoughts are laid bare on the canvas. That’s when she decides a title for it. She calls it ‘I wish it would rain’.

The hidden village in South Goa you've never heard about

UNTITLED UNTIL IT SPEAKS

“I don’t have a title till the painting is finished but I do have a thought. I begin with a thought,” shares the accidental artist.

This is how her paintings come to life. For her Short Stories From Goa series, which was curated by Samira Sheth and Ryan Semelhago and showcased at New Delhi’s India Art FairParallel in 2023, Kaur, along with seven other artists, tells a grippingly fascinating tale of Goa on canvases.

She paints Goa’s profound story in five chapters—Living Life in Colours, Jump In, Still Life in Goa, Ochre in My Sunset and Then the Sea Whispered.

Darpan KaurI don’t have a title till the painting is finished but I do have a thought. I begin with a thought

DUALITY IN REFLECTION

In 2024, the diehard abstractionist, tried to explore “duality” through her Mirror and Shadow series displayed at Oorja: The Luminous exhibition, curated by Gargi Seth. It was featured at the Art Santa Fe 2024 and World Health Congress at the Marriott Marquis in New York.

“Mirror & Shadow (series consisting of three titles InterLinked, Under my Skin, and Mirror & Shadow) is, of course, a playon my name (Darpan means mirror in English) and the fact that shadow does not appear in the mirror. But what if it could?" she writes in the summary of this series.

Guidebooks don't define Goa's true heritage

GOA, HER INSPIRATION

Kaur, who grew up in Chandigarh and lived most of her working life in Mumbai, never falls short of inspiration in Goa. It’s strewn all around her—in the walls of old Goan houses, in the thick of the mangroves or in its susegad. These are portrayed in all her painting series including Between You, Me and the Wall, Mangroves in the Rain, Wild Things and Susegad.   

“Goa is an artist’s paradise because of all the beauty around it—the greenery, the sunrise, the sunset, the sea and its susegad. You have to be non-hurried to sit down and create something,” says Kaur, who heard the hypnotic whisper of Goa’s sea in 2014 after embarking on the path of alternative healing that led her to her artistic pursuits.

Darpan KaurGoa is an artist’s paradise because of all the beauty around it—the greenery, the sunrise, the sunset, the sea and its susegad. You have to be non-hurried to sit down and create something

FINDING ART

The urgency of the whisper got so strong that one fine day she packed her bags and with her two dogs drove down to Goa from Mumbai, leaving a baffled husband behind. Kaur says her childhood “call of the mountains” was downed in the “whisper of the sea”.

It was Goa which shaped her art into what it is today. Her turning point, as an artist, came in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, when she enrolled for Nicholas Wilton’s Art2life course.

“That (Art2life) really changed me; changed how I looked at art; changed how what kind of art I want to make,” revealed Kaur.

The urgency of the whisper got so strong that one fine day she packed her bags and with her two dogs drove down to Goa from Mumbai, leaving a baffled husband behind.

HER INSPIRATION

Artists Louis Fletcher, Alice Sheridan and Nino Yuniardi, whose work she admires have done the same course. Closer home, she’s inspired by the works of abstract veteran Suhas Shilka. “I liked his work for a really long time. I had no idea he lived right here (next door in Dona Paula),” she said.

Kaur has traversed a long distance from 2010 when she quit her job with the makers of Johny Walker whisky to where she is today, and she is not looking back.

She’s busy expressing herself through the artistic vocabulary of her paintings, which adorn the walls of Goa’s Manohar International Airport at Mopa and Black Sheep Bistro in Panaji.

Step back in time as you wander around Goa’s villages

Like so many other artists, Goa’s now her home. If there’s one thing she finds amiss in the land of sun, sand and sea, it’s the lack of art galleries.

“Goa is full of artists but there could be more art shows if there are more art galleries. Goa has the makings of becoming very artist-friendly like Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata if we have more galleries,” says the marketing-executive-turned-artist.