She could have, of course, limited herself to repeating portraits. But that would not have allowed her to spread her artistic wings. It is evident that the experimentation with different genres is not all of the same standard, but it gives one a chance of seeing where her real strength lies. It is in colour and her painterly treatment of it. For example, pink and magenta are not easy colours with which to play. But her still life studies focussed on these colours make the point that one can expect her to evolve along these lines.

However, to really make her mark in art, and not just the art market, Ms Ahluwalia must break away from the conventional straitjacket of pretty flowers, pretty faces and pretty places. She must express that deeper flow of life that is India, mould it with her hands and give it a language of colour. Already Ms Ahluwalia has begun to move this way where technique is concerned. She has consistently used the spatula instead of the brush. And her use of it has become more and more varied over time, reflecting the growth of her stature as an artist. In this respect, her present exhibition shows her to be developing consistently to establish herself as a good artist and not merely a good painter.

Suneet Chopra