Durba Sen

Durba Sen is a painter living in the San Francisco bay area. Originally from India, Sen is deeply inspired by the rich colors of India, and has found that her experiences visiting India as an adult have helped her develop the colorful abstract art she now creates. I wanted to share excerpts from her artist statement here, as I find it is always best to read the artist’s own words whenever possible! Sen says,

Brushes, palette knives, and my hands are some of the tools I use to create my vision. Having grown up in the East, I love the color, smell and fragrance of spices, flowers, the celebration of life in festivals, and the hospitality of the people I have met during my travels in India and in other countries around the world. My art is abstraction of my journey and views in life!

My paintings are mostly abstract in nature, touching genres like geometric abstractions, landscapes and seascapes, socio-political and cultural issues that matter to me and the world around me. The Earth and the world we live in and the one we pass on to the next generation are very important to me. The issues we face today with Climate Change and Global Warming will do unknown damage to the future generations, the centennial implication for the 19th Amendment and women’s rights, which we still have to fight for, the racial and gender issues plaguing the world, today – I deeply care about these, and this finds representation in my work.

I hope you enjoy her work as much as I do! Perhaps you’ll be inspired to explore color and texture like she does?

Discussion for Kids

After looking at Sen’s work, gather materials to allow children time to create their own art. Ideal materials would be colorful paper and scissors (to create a collage) or paint of any kind with a variety of brush sizes, but crayons and colored pencils are wonderful as well!

I recommend giving kids these materials after taking several minutes to look at Sen’s work, without giving any specific prompts. It can be interesting to see how exposure to an artist’s work influences work a child would already make. Are they drawn to use similar colors? Similar shapes? Encourage them to experiment and have fun!