Pavni Diwanji

 

I have always painted in my free time. It gets my creative juices flowing, it’s meditative, and gives me a much needed joyful respite from my daily crazy life as a mother, entrepreneur and tech executive. 

I used to be a water colorist for most of my early life and only moved to pastels a few years back. In my early life as a watercolorist, brush went where the water flowed. In contrast, I love the intentionality of expression and boldness of lines that pastels enable. 

Pastels help me catch the rising feeling of awe in wildlife and wild landscapes. Pastels also make my mundane in-home rituals memorable in serene stillscapes and favourite figures.  I continue to push my compositions to be even simpler and strive to be bolder than my prior work. I continue to lean on a rich layering of colors and energetic strokes that mark my style. I start painting on site working quickly to capture the feeling, laying the foundational composition and colors and finishing the piece in my studio. 

My most recent series 'Life abstracted' has pivoted me to capturing the lasting feelings in memorable moments that I visit and revisit through my work. Whether it's that pensive mood, or a quiet moment, or sisters immersed in tete-a-tete, or mother-daughter bonding, I loved painting these figurative sojourns. I have carried my style of bold compositions, focused forms, color emotions, and strong strokes on this new road. My paintings take their own journeys - changing quite a bit over the course, and frequently surprising me with results. I hope this series takes you to your happy memories

My earlier work from last year 'Ebb & Flow' was displayed in Open Studios 2024. This series is all about my journey - feeling emptiness, experiencing change and rejuvenation, and eventually flowing, finding that peace and joy - and the cycle restarts. 

I look forward to your engagement and response,

–Pavni