Rajasthani Women 1960

M. F. Husain created this image of Rajasthani Women with paint, probably on canvas, and it's a world of greys and creams. I like to imagine Husain layering thin washes of color, letting them drip a bit to build up the figures. Those horizontal lines pull my eye across the painting like musical notation. You can almost feel the push and pull of the brush, and how the image came into being through trial and error. What might he have been thinking about as he created this piece? It makes me think about how artists, like Husain, look to folk art traditions and the work of other painters. It’s an ongoing conversation, an exchange of ideas across time. It's like everyone is adding their voice to one long, crazy discussion. Painting is a form of embodied expression, a conversation, where we all get to bring our own experiences and insights. It’s about feeling, not just seeing. And it embraces ambiguity, allowing for multiple interpretations.