Sushila Jayaram

Sushila Ram (1926 – 1990) was brought up in the Madras Presidency in pre-independence India. Married at a young age, her life changed rapidly when she moved to Delhi after Indian independence, where she connected with friends who shared her interest in art. These included Charles Fabri (the art critic) and his wife Ratna Fabri. It was, however, the friendship of Tattie Bell (who was able to provide a gathering point for then struggling artists like M. F. Hussain, Biren De, and Satish Gujral) and her knowledge of art that inspired Sushila to take up painting professionally.

From Sri Lanka to Beijing and onwards to Europe and then Egypt, Sushila traveled and painted extensively. Starting as a classical oil painter, she went on to experiment with several mediums of paint. During her palette knife phase of paintings, she mixed color and plaster of Paris and used hard boards to work on. Another phase of her work was the watercolor series, where she used Chinese painting techniques.

However, she was at her creative best when working with the palette knife. A technique and style now employed with great skill and emotion by Sumeela Mody, her granddaughter.

Asoka Katakam

Asoka Katakam was born on 20th September 1950, in New Delhi to Sushila and Atma Jayaram. He was educated at Bishop Cotton School, Shimla, UWC Atlantic College, Wales, Pembroke College Cambridge, Bartlett, and UCL London University before becoming a member of the R.I.B.An as a Chartered Architect.

He was fortunate to spend some of his childhood in China and Egypt while his father was posted there. His mother was an artist of some renown having studied at the Chelsea school of art and under the tutelage of David Paynter in Ceylon. She introduced him to the world of art and numerous artists both foreign and domestic which has inspired him over the years.

He practiced architecture in England for 5 years before returning to India to set up an architectural practice in 1982. He ran his practice Katakam and Associates for 34 years and retired in 2016, to pursue his hobby of pen and ink drawings. He exhibited his work on two occasions in late 2007 and in October 2017.

Sumeela Mody

An artist of Indian origin, Sumeela Mody’s earliest memories of art are intertwined with her grandmother’s ‘treasure’ trunk – a box stuffed with art supplies, charcoal drawings, and many a story. These colorful, almost sacred, articles would inspire her to pick up a pencil and much later in life, a palette knife.

An intuitive artist whose medium is acrylics, her strokes and techniques meander between spontaneity and poise, creating work that is inspired by wabi-sabi – a worldview that embraces the imperfect and finds beauty in the imperfections of life.

Sumeela is currently practicing in Hyderabad and being mentored by Shaun Heffernan, an English artist. As of early 2022, she worked on a series called H.U.R.T (Hope, Unity, Resilience, and Tolerance) in adversity, an ode to the aggressive displacement of migrant labor forces in India during the pandemic. Two of her paintings from this series were recently displayed as part of the “Hidden Majority - Covid 19 India’s Migration” exhibition by the Hyderabad Art Group.