The Open Studio / Vatsal Tiwari
Vatsal Tiwari
Sleeping Beauty
A sleeping body slowly becomes rock, leaf and grass
Rust and rose seep into the canvas like tea into cloth.
A shoulder turns to stone. A hip turns to petal.
Small grains catch the light like dust on a sill.
At the bottom, grass bends under no foot at all.
One orange spark glows deep in the right-hand fold.
The sleeper does not wake. The land breathes around it.
The work
Vatsal Tiwari comes from the College of Art, New Delhi. In Sleeping Beauty, resting bodies sink into a land of rock, leaf and petal. Tiwari paints with acrylic, oil and ink and adds rice to the canvas. Thin, soft colours let forms appear and then fade. A fine line splits the picture into two halves. Low grass runs along the bottom edge. For Tiwari, grass means survival. People step on it and crush it. Still it keeps growing.
In the artist’s words
“My work sits at the edge of representation, where the body dissolves into its surroundings. Through translucent hues, soft contours and layered surfaces, I let figures emerge, overlap and transform. Grass has become a recurring metaphor. Stepped upon and crushed, it continues to grow. For me, grass carries memory like the body, bearing traces of what has passed over it.”
- Theme
- Body, grass and survival
- Material
- Acrylic, oil and ink with rice on canvas
- Size
- 186.88 × 76 cm
- Year
- 2026
- Edition
- 1 of 1
- Framed
- Yes
- About the artist
- College of Art New Delhi
- From
- Delhi
- Code
- RC-372
