An afternoon with Rajita Schade 

As you step into Rajita’s sunlit, loud-music filled studio in Pune, you’re drawn into life sized splatters and forms that are stacked across her space. Canvases of colours that immediately start telling a story.This particular series speaks of the female experience, menopause. Rooted in the natural world, her works explore the relationship between the inner self and the organic intimate moments one shares with nature. A nomadic Indian practising visual arts, she spoke to us about the relationship between music and colour theory.

Rajita wears the Pegasus dress.

Where do you find inspiration?
I tend to observe life from a distance a bit and every now and then there are moments of disorientation, it’s in these in-between moments that flashes of inspiration come.

Can you talk about a piece of work and the inspiration behind it?
I am currently working on a series of paintings of plants that have links to our colonial past, and there’s one plant amongst these that was planted by the British in ca. 1830. It’s an invasive plant and it now covers 40 percent of India’s forest area.  

Rajita wears the Selene co-ord set.

How has your painting style changed over time?
The way I paint keeps changing and it’s not always linear. I move from hyper-realism to totally abstract depending on my inner life and I consider it my strength.

Describe your ideal working environment. When is your favourite time of day to create?
Very loud music and nothing on my mind. That's the best time to paint, and I try to establish this everyday anew.

What are you working on at the moment?

As I write these there are hundreds of mad red Gulmohar trees flaming all around us. Some years back when I lived in Germany it was one of my fondest memories of India and I think now I’m possibly adept enough to attempt painting them.

Is there an element of art you enjoy working with the most?
Yes, there is a moment while painting where the painting starts leading you instead of you leading the painting. It's magical when that happens.

Who are your biggest artistic influences?
I have two painting heroes and they are Gerhard Richter and Lucian Freud.

What was your strongest influence growing up ( artists, movies, comics, etc.)
My father was a painter, and an introduction to art through his collection of art books and his practice was very inspiring for me.

What is your advice for a beginner artist?
Get ready to meet your shadow and to fight it.

 Rajita in the Ariel Kaftan.

Tell us about the art you would display on your walls if you had a choice?
A painting called Betty by Gerhard Richter, and an abstract by the same artist and one by Sohan Qadri.

Fantasy dinner party guests (alive or dead) ?
Russel Brand, Ricky Gervais, Vandana Shivadas , David Bowie , Pema Chodron, Prof. Jordan Peterson

What would be your costume party theme?
Distasteful.

 

Muse- Rajita Schade
Photographer- Lokesh Bhoyar