3 weeks ago
Sadhna Gupta Turns the Human Psyche into an 'Orchestrated Symphony'
There is an artist named Sadhna Gupta who used to be a psychologist, which means she helped people talk about their feelings.
Now she is a painter, but she does not paint pictures of things like trees or people that look exactly real.
Instead, she paints colors, lines, shapes and squiggles that show what is going on inside our minds, like hidden worries, dreams and feelings.
She says everyone wears a 'mask' on the outside, while their inside world is full of different emotions.
Her paintings explore ideas like people feeling lost, people trying to find freedom, and people who just want to be themselves.
She named one of her ideas an 'orchestrated symphony' because the messy lines come together like music.
She says there is no right way to understand her art, and each viewer sees something different.
Sadhna says her art is like a mirror that helps people look at their own feelings.
Her paintings have been shown in places like Delhi, Toulouse and Cambridge, and people from different countries all connected with them.
Sadhna Gupta, a Delhi-based former psychologist and self-taught artist who works under the handle Sadhu Tree, creates non-representational abstract paintings that explore the human psyche.
She describes her work as an 'orchestrated symphony' in which lines, planes and dots of colour converge and diverge out of psychological disarray.
Her paintings use motifs such as masks, street dogs, forests, mazes, butterflies, Shakti goddesses and floating blue circles to explore hidden desires, conflict, freedom and detachment.
Gupta says her art is meant to open a mirror for viewers rather than give answers, and that there is no 'correct' way to read non-representational work.
Her work has been exhibited in Delhi, Toulouse in France and Cambridge in the USA, and she says the universal resonance of the human psyche has validated her introspective approach.
- Who
- Sadhna Gupta, a former psychologist and self-taught abstract artist based in Delhi, in an exclusive interview with Neha Purav.
- What
- A discussion of her non-representational abstract paintings, which explore hidden narratives, the subconscious and inner conflicts.
- Where
- Gupta is based in Delhi; her work has been exhibited in Delhi, Toulouse (France) and Cambridge (USA).
- When
- Not specified in the articles.
- Why
- Gupta paints the inner world of emotions and the subconscious because she believes cameras can capture outer reality while art expresses what lies beneath people's personas and how they interact with the world.
Key facts
- Artist
- Sadhna Gupta
- Creative handle
- Sadhu Tree
- Former profession
- Psychologist
- Art style
- Self-taught non-representational abstraction
- Exhibition locations
- Delhi, Toulouse (France), Cambridge (USA)
- Interviewer
- Neha Purav
- Recurring motifs
- Masks, street dogs, forests, mazes, butterflies, circles, squares, zigzags
- Key themes
- Hidden desires, psychological conflict, spirituality, freedom, detachment
Quotes
Sadhna Gupta
Artist and former psychologist
“I want them to give themselves permission to feel and question. We live in a world that constantly demands clarity, order, and neat definitions.”
thestatesman.com
“When viewers look at the convergence and divergence of lines and marks, they are forced to confront their own internal landscapes.”
thestatesman.com








