Portraits of intimacy

Artist Manuja Waldia's vivid and visceral paintings capture the simple joys of life, the tender exchanges between family and friends and the fascinating ubiquity of everyday routines.

- SHRIYA ZAMINDAR

Melancholia and solitude are not mutually exclusive-take it from the often forlorn yet hauntingly beautiful works of Munch, Gauguin and Dalí. Since time immemorial, these emotions have served as a potent reserve of inspiration for artists to tap into, realised through a panoply of shapes, forms and colour. Goa-based artist Manuja Waldia's artworks draw from that very pit, but her expression of melancholic solitude turns into the perfect antithesis, capturing scenes that radiate joy and warmth instead. "Painting is a very lonely and tiresome pursuit. I love to paint the kind of