Spring of Change.

2025

Ongoing Series of Watercolours

Spring of Change is a series of contemporary watercolours by Arjuna, evolving from the Spontaneous Layered Mark-Making technique he honed in his earlier collection, Conservatory (2021 - Ongoing), created in Ink, Acrylic Pigment Pen on Paper. In this new body of work in Watercolour, he masterfully brings the felt knowledge of the previous medium, how it behaves and its particular qualities into the new, refining the watercolour discipline & technique by merging it with his Eastern Ink drawing & claigraphy techniques, signature layering, command of perspective, colour harmony, and the precision of miniature painting, all infused with spontaneity in his single-stroke figures.

These paintings are a deeply personal response to a world in flux. Drawing upon themes both intimate and global, Arjuna reflects on his children coming of age amid rapidly shifting political and geopolitical landscapes. The intensifying conflict in the Middle East enters this visual field not as reportage, but as emotional truth. In Masacre (2025), he channels grief and outrage over the bombing of civilians by global superpowers. The figures, gently rendered with sincerity and pathos, embody the innocence lost. The subdued, muted palette he employs throughout these “conflict” works resonates with mourning, evoking the weight of collective sorrow.

Unlike the life-affirming foliage of his earlier works, here the structural flora emanate grief and cruelty, standing as mute witnesses to human suffering. There is an eerie quality of absense felt in these works. The compositions hold a paradox: while the formal structure suggests the instability of the times, the figures drift in a temporal dance, suspended like Rudra’s Tāṇḍava, the cosmic dance of dissolution and renewal.

These works are not for sale. In accordance with Arjuna’s personal dictum, expressions born from reverence and mourning are never commodified. They stand as offerings - visual prayers in paint - for a world on the brink and a heart unwilling to turn away.

Growing

2025 | 38 x 28cm (14-1/1 x 11”) | Watercolour on Paper

Earlier work from the (Conservatory 2021 -Present) Collection in Ink, Acrylic Pigment Pen on Paper