Behind The Brush

Rithika Merchant paints fantasies — her work is full of hybrid creatures, liquid landscapes and horoscopic skies. But, the Barcelona-based visual artist has her feet firmly on the ground and her eye sharply on the ball. Skye Arundhati Thomas explores both the right and left brain of the Mumbai-born artist whose life straddles two continents

- Skye Arundhati Thomas

Yes, the practice is important, and you have to consistently work hard to make the work that you want to make, but at the end of the day, an artist needs to know how to issue an invoice… and it’s as simple as that.” It is a cool monsoon afternoon in Mumbai and Rithika Merchant and I are chatting over Skype; she is in her Barcelona studio (located quite conveniently inside her apartment — and she very much likes it that way), preparing for a month-long annual trip to Mumbai. Although she has been living in the Spanish city for over seven years now, Mumbai is still home. She lives between the two seaside cities, which keep her close to the water. She is cool and collected, and likes to get straight to the point. I am pleased by her honest approach to our conversation, and what I enjoy most is her pragmatism, and the steady manner in which she answers questions about her life, her work, and her views on the state of the arts today.

“We had a class called ‘professional practices’ in college and it was one of the most useful subjects that I ever took — we had writing workshops to help us put together statements and proposals, and practical sessions that took us through the business and financial aspects of being full-time artists,” she continues. Although her work has elements of the romantic and the nostalgic, a chat with her is more precise than meandering — she is at once living the life of an artist in the bohemian city of Barcelona, as well as sharply manoeuvring the field with her practical acumen. In contemporary times, this is what successful artists are able to do. She sees the industry for what it is, and stresses upon the need for artists to educate themselves on administrative and business concerns.