T. K. Padmini

Born in 1940 in Kadancheri, a small village in Kerala, T. K. Padmini revealed an early artistic brilliance during high school. Encouraged by her art teacher K. L. Devassi and with training from K. M. Vasudevan Namboodiri, she joined the College of Fine Arts and Crafts in Madras (now Chennai) in 1961. Here she studied under the instruction of celebrated artist K. C. S. Paniker. After earning her Diploma in Painting in 1965, Padmini continued to develop a uniquely feminine artistic sensibility that explored the beauty of rural landscapes and domestic life. Her trained eye and subject matter recall that of Amrita Sher-Gil, who often conveyed tender portraits of rural women in adolescence. 

Padmini participated in a number of group shows in Madras, Bombay, Calcutta, Hyderabad and Kochi, and held a solo show in Madras in 1968. In the same year, she married her fellow artist and student at the College of Fine Arts, K. Damodaran. Tragically, Padmini, like Sher-Gil, died young, passing away at the age of 29 from complications during her first childbirth in 1969, leaving behind a finite but mature body of work.