Meera Iyer

Tanjore painting is meditation. You start with a wooden plank, layer it with cloth and limestone paste, sculpt the relief work, apply gold foil, and finally paint. It takes weeks. I trained under Guru Srinivasan in Thanjavur for six years before I dared to call myself an artist. The gold in Tanjore paintings is real 22-carat foil. When light hits it, the deity seems to glow. That moment — when a client tells me the painting brought peace to their home — that is why I do this.