Maya Burman

Born 1971 in France, Maya Burman comes with an artistic lineage; parents Sakti Burman and Maite Delteil, both being very prominent artists.[Text Wrapping Break][Text Wrapping Break]The striking thing about her paintings is the amount of detail in them. In formal terms Maya Burman`s paintings have a tapestry like effect where everything is subordinate to patterning, reminiscent of the French art nouveau tradition. The figures have an archetypal aura about them and their rendering in a clean decisive manner has its sources in Picasso`s later classical period, his return after the war into an idyllic land inhabited by healthy and young boys of Athenian ideal.  

Maya Burman`s technique is a slow step-by-step process of accumulation of marks. She makes a pencil sketch first, then applies the layer of water colours and finishes the outlines and detail in black ink with a pen. There is certain precision to the rendering, a legacy perhaps of her training as an architect, which contrasts nicely with the ambiguities of the themes that she handles. Burman’s paintings are reminiscent of the French art nouveau tradition and European Middle Age architecture, interlaced with mythical and folk inspired imagery somewhat akin to miniature paintings that stem from her Indian ancestry. The work makes an interesting melting pot, a meeting ground between the two cultures. 

She works mainly in pen and ink, and watercolour; her paintings are delicate and usually have a strong fantasy element. The striking thing about her paintings is the amount of detail in them. Her compositions are mostly figurative and change according to her mood. 

Ms. Burman lives in Paris but in her paintings, she retires to a land of lyricism and allegory. Her exhibit with us is titled A Happy Family, a mixed media on paper.