I have painted canvases all my life. Even before architecture and clay, I painted. When I started showing my ceramics at galleries, I found it very obvious to add my paintings to blank walls in object-driven, pedestal-based sculptural shows. Funnily, I would sell more paintings than clay pieces …. A common lament I would hear, “this will break if my maid dusts it carelessly, but a painting on a wall with hang there forever!” ….whatever the reason, I enjoy painting. With acrylics it’s a what-you-see-is-a-what-you-get medium. I don’t have to deal with the idiosyncrasies of a cone ten firing and I get a colour palette that I cannot get in high-fired stoneware. Since the last several years I have been using a variety of clays and ceramic raw materials in my paintings, which brings in texture and relief to the canvas…. And gets the two mediums I like to work with, clay and paint, closer. The tactile is a very important element in my world. I usually paint at night, intentionally under tubelights. I like to abandon control. I liberally sprinkle sand, soil, ceramic grog, glues, resists and various raw clays, before and after I pour on paints. These goops, I spread by hand….. Brushes just don’t feel right for this. I move the canvas so the mix flows and mingles with water, medium and paints. It’s quite mesmerizing when this happens. Resultant surfaces crackle, rapture, crinkle and hiss as they dry, giving the canvas a “clay-ey” feel. The whole concept of posting “please do not touch” at shows is totally ridiculous! I invite the viewer to come up-close and get personal with my works, with labels stuck around saying “Please DO Touch”. These paintings are part of the SENTINEL SERIES, with clay objects and canvases inspired by gateposts of yore.... gateposts we grew up seeing in the villages of Goa and Colombo 7 district, ...and my very own Parsi Colony in Dadar, Bombay!