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Pia Meenakshi, a Bangalore based artist, illustrator, and tattoo designer has channelled her artistic sensibilities into a business venture selling her unique range of original handmade watercolors. Pigmenta was born out of a need, and dearth, of quality art supplies in the country and especially in Bengaluru. “A few years ago, I began paying more attention to art materials. I wanted a clear understanding of the difference between high-end art materials and the lower, more inexpensive brands. What were the elements that determined the overall quality of the product? I read extensively on how art supplies were made and slowly came to understand the science of it. With that knowledge, I started reviewing materials and started a blog, which became a space where I would examine a particular product in detail and test its applications. Most importantly, I tell my readers where to find it in India, especially Bangalore,” Pia told Design Fabric.
Over many years, Pia experimented with mixing colors and pigments with binders, with very interesting, if not always fruitful, results. She perfected her technique through basic trial and error until she was satisfied with the colours, texture and visual appeal of her product.
A subtle pink hue, described as a “ghostly iridescent pink”, or a soft silver called Lunar Dust, her range is unlike most standard watercolours you would typically expect to find in the market - and that’s the whole point. She started with the aim of creating limited edition handmade paints that won’t burn too big a hole in your pocket. She hardly produces in bulk, instead preferring the quaint exclusivity of the process. Her signature Gold paint is a shimmery cloud of highly pigmented watercolour and gold dust. She wants people in India to have access to shades beyond just the primary colours and Pigmenta is the first step in that direction.
Creating an entire range of watercolours is just one of the many art projects the multi talented Meenakshi dabbles in. Her establishment Studio Gumani is the umbrella studio which houses all her different art interests. She illustrates professionally, makes murals, and even tries her hand at book binding. Having worked with an impressive number of commercial illustration projects, Pia wants to expand the market for illustrators that often find themselves struggling when pitted against graphic designers and photographers. To an average art layman, the difference between an illustrator and a graphic designer wouldn’t be very pronounced. Few probably think it’s more or less the same thing (cue outraged gasps from all of the art community). Pia gets most annoyed when this distinction is overlooked. “Illustration isn’t very big in the country right now, and the life of an illustrator in India is very lonely. It seems like people think that the only way to communicate visually is through graphic design or photography.” She told Astray in an interview.
Growing up, Meenakshi split her time between Bengaluru, where she went to school, and Coorg, where her family owns a coffee estate. The wilderness of Coorg is clearly a major source of inspiration for the young artist - her work is strewn with outdoor elements, often portrayed in a magical realism light. Pia, perhaps better known by her alias Gumani, has an intriguing fascination with insects - and she prefers them dead. “I’m also very fond of collecting and studying dead things that I find – whether its an interesting leaf, a dead insect, bones, skulls, flowers. There is a lot of beauty in beings even after their life is over. There is beauty in the way bones hold up an entire animal and in the way insects usually leave their bodies completely intact. I’m drawn by shapes, forms and colours in their remains. People find my collection disturbing and ask me whats wrong with me for keeping bones and skulls but I don’t see the harm in appreciating things that people find weird, strange or disturbing,” she told Kyoorius in an interview. Always pushing the boundaries of artistic expression, Pia has been working on the distinct art of hand cut 3D illustrations that, true to her signature style, revolve around themes of wildlife in their natural habitat. Anything but limiting, Meenakshi has proved herself to be a force to reckon with.
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