Have you ever experienced love at first sight? For Kamakshi Gupta it happened when she was a seven-year-old. It wasn't a celebrity or a teenage pop star, it was a madhubani and kalamkari painting. "I was visiting my mother's friend and in their drawing-room, I saw a gorgeous painting, I didn't even know what an artform is it," says Kamakshi, all she knew was that it was love at first sight. Cut to today, the 14-year-old exhibited 25 of her finest works at her own exhibition titled The Myriad Hues of Madhubani at the Convention Foyer of the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. She not only amassed appreciation and praises at the two-day exhibition, she even sold 14 of her artworks! Truly, love works in mysterious ways.
 
Catching up with the Art-dashians
This student of class IX is a self-taught artist who has been enriched through her research and watching videos on YouTube pertaining to madhubani and kalamkari. She did this because she did not have any option. She just wasn't able to find a tutour for the two art forms. She vigorously took up the two art forms and tried to imitate the paintings of other artists. And somewhere along the lines, she perfected it. Till date, she practices for one to two hours every day and more than four hours during her holidays.

Kamakshi Gupta | (Pic: Kamakshi Gupta)
 

Inside her art-space
Kamakshi, who is a student of Modern School, Barakhamba Road, has a room dedicated to her art, in which, she comes up with all her ideas and paintings. It's surprising that this youngster is glued to arts while most of the others are glued to their screens. "Actually, the credit for this goes to my mother who has always encouraged me to shun screens which only destroy time and spoil eyes," says the Delhite who uses pen, paper, acrylic paints and even the occasional sketch pens to create art.

Another important point to note about Kamakshi is that she finds inspiration in nature. A walk in the park can prove to be not just a refresher, but also a motivator. "I just feel that I am at peace when I am one with nature," says the youngster with a smile. And after acing madhubani and kalamkari, she wants to practice and perfect Warli art as well.

Way to go, we say!

Kamakshi's work

This was a particularly difficult artwork to do for Kamakshi. She took six months to do the whole artwork and to paint the water alone it took a month | (Pic: Kamakshi Gupta)

Another one of Kamakshi's artwork | (Pic: Kamakshi Gupta)

She took five months to complete this artwork | (Pic: Kamakshi Gupta)

An artwork by Kamakshi | (Pic: Kamakshi Gupta)