Indian Yellow

In Hanuman Temple (detail) 2023

It is forty-one years (almost to the day) since I arrived in Mumbai Airport for my first visit to India. Since then I have returned many times to the north and south of the country to travel, paint, explore, and most recently, to volunteer as a teacher of English in a rural school in Uttarakhand.

This exhibition at MOMA Machynlleth is mainly new work alongside a few earlier paintings borrowed from public and private collections. Watercolour is a medium that lends itself to transparency and immediacy. Indian yellow is a beautiful pigment, the colour of turmeric or saffron-infused water. I use this colour to paint the butter lamps in Buddhist gompas, late afternoon sunlight on sandstone temples, reflected sunrise on the surface of India’s holy rivers and the sacred fire ritual of Ganga Aarti, which is performed every evening on the banks of the Ganges.

Here is an invitation to the exhibition. I hope you can make it!