A woman pauses beneath a tree for shade, a child looks out from a balcony, two men sit quietly on a park bench — these ordinary vignettes are the kinds of moments artist Kaushik Charoliya returns to, again and again. His paintings capture the shared rituals of urban life in India: walking, waiting, watching, and resting. Set in public gardens, housing societies, and open courtyards, his scenes are stripped of spectacle and anchored in presence. Through intricate patterns, flat colour planes, and careful layering, Kaushik transforms the ordinary into an emotional index — a record of how it feels to dwell in these spaces.

Each figure in these mundane slices of Indian life appears suspended in a moment of stillness, rendered in flat planes of colour and surrounded by dense patterns that echo the textiles of domestic life. Through this visual language, Kaushik elevates the overlooked — the simple act of being present — and transforms routine gestures into something celebratory.

Kaushik, who trained in Baroda and grew up in Rajkot amidst printed fabrics, brings a distinctly textile-rooted sensibility to his art. “Even before being consciously introduced to the world of art and design,” he recalls, “I was continuously surrounded by patterns. Curtains, pillow covers, printed shirts, the frills of kitchen cabinets — the repetitive patterns followed me everywhere.” His family’s legacy in saree and fabric printing, deeply rooted in the karkhanas of Rajkot, forms the grammar of his visual language.

Working primarily through serigraphy, Kaushik composes each scene through a logic akin to textile weaving. “It may seem that the layers in the artwork are placed real carefully and then the story emerges, but to me I feel it's the vice versa,” he says. “The layered stories are already existing in front of our eyes and we just have to lift each layer to feel what's behind it.” This philosophy plays out across his works: figures don’t dominate the frame; they dissolve into foliage, tiles, and textures. A tree becomes a tapestry of floral units. A woman’s sari blends into the background pattern, until the viewer must work to distinguish her. These visual fusions are metaphors for interconnectedness, and a refusal of hierarchy between subject and setting.

At the heart of Kaushik's practice is a rejection of spectacle. His is a slow, observant gaze that dignifies the act of simply being. “We do not have to wait for any grand gesture or event to celebrate the beauty of life,” he notes. “A mere two-minute stroll into a garden can leave you as happy as one might get while buying new assets.” In this, there is a quiet resistance to dominant narratives of aspiration and productivity. The people in Kaushik's paintings are not striving for anything — they are just living.

Time, too, dissolves in his visual universe. There are no clear markers of season or hour, only the unmeasured rhythm of being together. “The aspect of time does not exist in the garden composition artworks of mine,” he explains. “It is the gathering at the place that is vital.” His attention to gardens — the shared public spaces that punctuate Indian cities, becomes a recurring motif. They are democratic arenas, holding space for rest, conversation, mischief, solitude. and Kaushik renders them with the reverence of a stage designer and the affection of a local.

“A garden is not just a place to relax,” he says, “but like a fireworks show, where everyday the fireworks remain the same but each time they illuminate in a completely different style, telling a new visual story every single time.” In Kaushik's world, beauty is not rare or precious. It’s daily; repetitive; familiar. And all the more radiant because of it.

Follow Kaushik here.

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