SANGITA PHADKE
THE UNDERSTORY

EXHIBIT STATEMENT

Deep in the understory of the forest, there is a world of life filled with shadows that curl around tree trunks and disappear into the darkness. Every once in a while, sunlight finds its way through all the overlapping branches and leaves. The light that reaches the forest floor feels lighter when held up to all this darkness, almost like it’s glowing.

“The series of paintings in The Understory are my attempt to capture this powerful relationship between light and dark.”

ARTIST STATEMENT

Sangita Phadke is a self-taught artist from Colts Neck, NJ.  Her award winning paintings have hung in some of the most prominent museums, galleries, and private collections across America and abroad, including The United States Embassy, the San Diego Art Institute, the Butler Institute of American Art, The National Arts Center in Taipei Taiwan, and The Art Gallery of Hamilton Ontario. Phadke grew up in the Chicago suburbs and graduated with a degree in finance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  She soon realized that her true calling was to tell stories through art. In a short period of time, she received the designation of “Master Pastelist” by the Pastel Society of America and the International Association of Pastel Societies. Her work has been featured in Fine Art Connoisseur, American Art Collector, The Artist’s Magazine, Pratique des Arts (France), The Pastel Journal, Les Maitres du Pastel (France), International Artist Magazine, and Southwest Art Magazine.

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In her pastel paintings, her subjects sit in the dark illuminated by a strong spotlight, as if they are on stage.  She focuses on a piece of fruit, a flower, or a figure. Phadke arranges her compositions to create dramatic contrasts between the subject and the dark backgrounds.  She also adds curiosities, a scratch in the surface of a fruit or an unexpected color in a strand of fabric that can only be seen at close distances. While her subjects are unique in color, form, and shape, they all have a connection to nature and above all they have life.