Shunyata/Stillness

Drawing from contemplative thought and lived experience, these paintings attend to states of awareness rather than belief systems. They explore how silence, vibration, and focused attention can soften the boundaries between inner and outer worlds, allowing perception to slow and deepen.

The term shunyata is used here not as doctrine, but as a way of describing spaciousness — a condition in which form, sound, and identity momentarily loosen, creating room for stillness, clarity, and presence to arise.

  • Aum is among the most ancient sounds articulated in Indian philosophical thought, understood as a vibration that encompasses emergence, continuity, and dissolution — followed by silence, which gestures toward pure awareness.

    In this work, Aum is approached not as a religious symbol, but as vibration and resonance. A copper form cuts through the canvas, moving across time and space, while inscriptions of Aum in multiple scripts suggest a frequency that travels beyond geography, culture, and era.

    The painting holds Aum as a constant — rooted in Indian philosophical legacy, yet experienced universally — a quiet reminder of coherence beneath multiplicity, and of the stillness that can be felt beneath noise.

    2025/26 | 88×88 cms | 35×35 inches

    Mixed media on canvas

  • “In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.” — John 1:1

    In Indian thought, this primordial sound is known as AUM. It is understood as a vibration that moves through space and time — without beginning or end — since once a vibration is created, it continues to exist.

    In this painting, the AUM form appears in its most widely recognised shape, dividing the canvas into three fields that suggest creation, preservation, and dissolution. Across cultures and belief systems, the number three recurs as a structure of balance and continuity — from trinities of becoming and transformation to paths of knowledge and practice. Variations of AUM appear in thirteen different languages around the central form, indicating a resonance that moves through cultures, geographies, and time.


    2017 | 90x90 cms | 35x35 inches

    Copper and acrylic paints on canvas

  • A mélange of spiritual forms comes together to reflect nirvana — a state of heightened awareness, freedom, peace, and complete happiness. AUM, the sacred sound of awakening, and the Hindu swastika — a symbol of the sun, prosperity, and continuity — are placed alongside Krishna, one of the most revered incarnations of Vishnu, associated with protection, compassion, and love.

    Krishna is shown adorned with a peacock feather and playing his favourite instrument, the bansuri (flute). These familiar forms are not presented as separate narratives, but as converging expressions that settle into a shared stillness — where sound, symbol, and presence gently dissolve into a state of quiet awareness.


    2003 | 93x70 cms | 36.5x27.5 inches

    Acrylics on stretched canvas

  • The Buddha is shown seated in samadhi — the Sanskrit term for the highest state of meditative absorption, where awareness rests in complete stillness.

    Above and below the figure appear the symbols tai and loi, markings often found on traditional gongs. Read together, they carry a quiet affirmation — that what is harmful recedes and what is good arrives; that happiness emerges as the mind settles.


    2015 | 50x60 cms | 19.5x24 inches

    Copper and acrylic paints on canvas

  • This diptych shows the Buddha in deep meditation — serene and balanced, held in quiet composure.

    The leaves represent the 'Bodhi' tree under which he attained enlightenment.

    2012 | 15x65 | 6x25 inches each

    Copper and acrylic paints on canvas

  • The maestro plays beautiful and divine music to celebrate the rising of the sun, a new day and a new beginning.

    2016 | 80x80 cms | 31x31 inches

    Copper and acrylic paints on canvas

  • Fluid acrylics swirl around with the whirling dervish as he loses himself in his devotion. A touch of copper depicts the purity of his soul.

    2018 | 78x68 cms | 31x27 inches

    Copper and acrylic paints on canvas

  • Ganesha’s association with the tandava highlights his divine strength, linking him to his father’s powerful, transformative energy — even as his form is most often perceived as gentle.

    As the elephant-headed god of new beginnings, Ganesha’s dance becomes an expression of movement held within awareness — where obstacles dissolve and renewal begins.

    2013 | 50x50 cms | 19.5x19.5 inches

    Copper and acrylic paints on canvas

  • Ganesha is shown in a state of joyous movement, surrounded by musicians who are also forms of Ganesha. Dance and music unfold together, creating a shared rhythm that radiates outward.

    Rather than force or transformation, the work holds a sense of celebration — where sound, movement, and devotion merge into a state of collective ecstasy and presence.


    2013 | 50x50 cms | 19.5x19.5 inches

    Copper and acrylic paints on canvas

  • Six panels hold Ganesha in moments of musical absorption.
    In Indian philosophy, sound (nāda) leads to silence (shūnya) — a transition this work quietly inhabits, where rhythm gives way to stillness and attention rests within.

    2014 | 97x116 cms | 38x46 inches

    Mixed Media

    Commissioned for a home in Kolkatta