Chitra Ramanathan

Official Website: http://www.chitraramanathan.com

Biography:

Born in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala and raised in Kolkatta and later Chennai, India, Chitra Ramanathan began drawing and painting at the age of four. When she was a child, she drew faces of random people around her and portraits of her parents’ friends, happy to pose for her. She has been quoted by the Indianapolis Star Fishers|Magazine, July/August 2007, that “I recollect repeatedly making color pencil drawings of a scenic lake with boats near our family home in Kolkatta”. She was a participant in art contests at every stage of her formative years and recalls being a frequent recipient of prizes offered by corporate child art sponsors such as Hindustan Unilever Ltd. and Philips India. A nationally publicized coloring contest sponsored by Hindustan Unilever that was juried by eminent Indian artists/public figures of the time adjusted her a winner at the age of ten. The next year, one of her landscape paintings was showcased at the Birla Academy of Arts and Culture, Kolkatta at which venue she was awarded a silver trophy bearing her name. Subsequently she earned a Bachelors degree in Fine Arts from Stella Maris College, Chennai.

After migrating to the States, she continued her education, and received her second Bachelors in Painting with honors and a M.B.A, in both degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. While a student at the University of Illinois, Chitra was the recipient of the Binney and Smith Art Grant awards for 1994 and 1995, for “Outstanding achievement in the Painting discipline”.

In the meantime, her paintings and three dimensional pieces were already being featured in solo and group exhibitions on Broadway, New York, following a solo exhibition of her paintings, prints and sculpture at the ARC Gallery/Educational Foundation in Chicago, Illinois in 1994. Several of those exhibitions attracted positive responses/write-ups from critics.

Since 1999, Chitra’s work has been acquired by corporate, public and private collectors including academic institutions around the United States and in Europe.

All originals not listed as sold or as commissioned work, are available for sale. Please see description for each image.