#KnowTheArtist: Rajul Shah
Making by Feel
For Rajul Shah, painting begins before there is a plan. Colour, texture and touch lead the way.
People encountering Rajul Shah’s work often begin at a distance. She has noticed viewers first responding to the shapes and colours before moving closer, where textures, lines and tonalities beneath the upper layers gradually come into view. Some have told her they feel a “sense of vibration” from the work; another described feeling “disorientated… in a good way”.
That experience of looking — first taking in the whole, then discovering what lies beneath — reflects something of Rajul’s own process. Her paintings are built layer by layer, guided less by a predetermined image than by her response to colour, material and touch as she works.
“Whenever I start a painting, no matter what the substrate, the first colour I lay down is always one that peeks through to the final layers,” she says.
From there, instinct takes over.
“I don’t think, I just do”
Rajul doesn’t spend much time consciously planning what should come next. Instead, she begins by sensing which textures she wants to touch and which colours she wants to see.
“To be honest, I don’t do a lot of intentional thinking,” she explains. “I take a moment to sense what type of texture or colour elements would make me happy to touch and see.”
Laying down texture with her hands is comforting. While her first colour is chosen simply because it feels good to look at, each subsequent layer develops from the same instinctive response.
“It really is about what feels good in the moment. I believe the technical term for this is ‘psychic automatism’. I don’t think, I just do.”
The more analytical decisions come later. Towards the end of the process, Rajul begins to self-critique the painting from an academic and technical perspective, using colour theory to draw attention to tonalities that interest her visually.
Her kintsugi-inspired lines arrive at this later stage too. “When I stand back and look at my work, the painting tells me where kintsugi lines are needed to bond its internal spaces together.”
Making through touch
If colour is often what draws a viewer into Rajul’s work, touch is one of the things that drives its making.
“Tactile stimulation has always been soothing for me — when it is the right surface,” she says. “There are surfaces that I literally repel from as I don’t like how they feel.”
Her preferred materials are consequently very specific. She names washi paper, bamboo paper, wood, linen canvas, tissue paper, moulding paste, gel and oil paints among the surfaces and mediums she enjoys working with. And there is another material increasingly capturing her attention.
“I love the smoothness and coolness of clay,” she says, adding: “Hint at what is coming!”
There is no complicated selection process behind these choices. “I only go with what feels good to me. Otherwise, it is not fun to create.”
For Rajul, this physical engagement with her materials also offers a way of being present in the act of making.
“Focusing on touch, being present in the material and medium — this is a form of meditation and mindfulness for me,” she explains. “I receive what I give into my art: a sense of calm that balances my energy.”
Adding, removing and knowing when to stop
Rajul’s paintings are built through successive layers of colour and texture. Some remain visible; others are altered, glazed over or covered as the work develops. With every layer, she is looking for what she describes as an emotional connection.
“I used to think of it as a ‘joy spark’, but it has evolved into something more.”
Her research into how energy and matter move through objects and people, as well as through air, sound, smell and touch, has made her more conscious of how she responds to the world around her, including her own work.
She also deliberately uses materials that create variations in tonality and depth as the light changes throughout the day and evening. The result is a surface that can reveal something different depending on when it is viewed.
Knowing when to stop comes back to her own response to what is on the canvas.
“When I feel positive energy, a calming feeling and I am ‘not bored’ with what is on the canvas — that is when I know the work is finished.”
Starting with a feeling, not a finished picture
One of the shifts in Rajul’s practice over the past two years has been learning not to begin with an exact vision of the finished work. Trying to reach a predetermined result often left her frustrated and disconnected from what she was creating.
Instead, she now begins with a different objective: how she wants to feel when she eventually stands in front of it.
“I want to feel like I can ‘dive into’ the painting and ‘float’ in its layers, like one would sit in a bath to soak for relaxation,” she says.
Colour becomes part of finding that feeling. Rajul wants to take her time noticing the different tonalities of blue, purple or orange within a painting. If one particular colour disrupts the sense of calm she is looking for, she changes it.
“If a specific colour of orange doesn’t bring me a sense of peace, I take it off or glaze or paint texture over it until I do.”
She approaches materials with the same openness. While respecting the technical requirements of the mediums she uses — such as the “fat over lean” principle in oil painting — she gives herself freedom to explore collage papers, different paints, textures and, increasingly, clay.
As one layer suggests the colour that should follow, Rajul allows the materials themselves to influence where the work goes next.
Kintsugi as a way of thinking
Kintsugi has been an important visual and philosophical influence in Rajul’s work for many years, but its meaning to her has continued to evolve.
“The more I study energy science and mindfulness, the greater use I have for the philosophy of kintsugi,” she says. “It has become a way of life for me.”
Meditation, mindfulness and yoga have become tools through which she applies that philosophy to both life and art. Central to her interpretation is resilience and the acceptance of imperfection.
She describes resilience as “elastic”: “The stronger the foundation, the greater acceptance of imperfection, the greater potential for resilience.”
That thinking continues to feed back into her practice.
“My art carries this purpose with respect to life, and as time goes by I find myself delving deeper into textures, materials, colour and compositions to bring this experience for myself, my collectors and anyone who is ready to view my work.”
Taking the time to look
Shapes and colours may provide the first point of entry into Rajul’s work, but she believes its full experience asks for something more from the viewer.
“The full emotional benefit of my work requires time, a meditative space and moments of vulnerable introspection.”
For all the layers, materials and decisions that go into each painting, Rajul’s process begins somewhere remarkably simple: with what she wants to touch, what she wants to see and what feels right in that particular moment.
Or, in her own words: “I don’t think, I just do.”