Born in 1946, Padmanabh Bendre acquired his bachelor's and master's degrees in Architecture and Town Planning from M. S. University of Baroda and Pune University, respectively; this training armed him with the knowledge to invent new techniques. Padmanabh’s father was the renowned painter, N S Bendre, one of the original fathers of Indian contemporary art. He was a pioneer, often acclaimed with silver and gold medals, as he received some of India’s highest awards for his art. He headed various art universities and helped create Lalit Kala Academy. Growing up in an artistic family, Padmanabh took short term courses in drawing and monoprints from Phoenix, Arizona, U.S.A. Also, as a trustee of the Bendre Foundation for Art & Culture, he has organized many artist camps in Mumbai and continues to exhibit his works. From pointillism to the figurative to graphic collage works, with canvas on canvas that can be equated to inlay, he has reinvented himself across three decades. His current painting from the series of Lord Ganesh is the result of astonishing work. He takes great pleasure in communicating through the element of graphic forms, complete with negative and positive forms and spaces. Here, painstaking dots of pigment come together on the canvas to give way to a larger whole. The intermingling of these colors gives an effect of light and shadow; this technique demonstrates the artist's mastery of his craft and his consummate devotion to his work. The vibrant reds and oranges merge with blues to give way to purples; all of this executed in dots that trick the eye into seeing a cohesive image. While this work is more impressionistic, one can distinguish the forms of the sun, of a bird, of the elephant; various themes from nature emerge. Thus one must stop and give one's full concentration to the image, allowing the eye to see what the artist has created for view. "For human beings, it's a rock in the form of Lord Ganesh, thus we worship the rock with emotions. A bird sits on the same rock not knowing that it is Lord Ganesh and is attracted by Red flowers kept at Lord Ganesh's feet." - Padmanabh Bendre