IRS officer Dr Sudha Kumari is a known face in the world of art. Despite being a highly active and accomplished civil service officer since 1989, she has made her mark in art as well with her ‘happy paintings’. ‘Happy’ because she aspires to spread happiness through the portrayal of the beauty of nature and the beauty of the human heart through them. Her paintings are currently on display at an exhibition, aptly named ‘Happy World of Paintings, at Pearey Lal Bhawan in Delhi.
Indian Masterminds caught up with the bureaucrat at the exhibition venue to get to know her better as a painter.
EXHIBITION OF HER PAINTINGS
The 5-day exhibition, ‘Happy World of Paintings’, was inaugurated-yesterday by Bijendra Singh Chauhan, Principal, College of Art, New Delhi along with senior faculty member, Rashmi Saxena Sahni, and Chief Commissioner of Income Tax, Pankaj Vidyarthi.
The exhibition features water, oil and digital paintings of Dr Kumari, portraying the beauty of nature as well as the beauty of the human heart.
Other than her paintings, several of her books of poetry in Hindi and English, her satires and opinion pieces, and her painting albums are also on display.
Dr Kumari told Indian Masterminds that what started as a hobby in her school days soon became a passion as she started taking it up seriously. “I took up painting in school as a hobby. It continued till my college days. Even as I was continuing my studies, I was painting at the same time. Over the years, I have preserved those paintings well and, today, they are on display in the exhibition.”
Also, on display in the same exhibition are Madhubani art and paintings by Anamika Dutta and her students under the name of ‘Art Unlimited’, and portraits done by Prabhash Shankar, ex-Member of CBDT, Delhi.
EXPLORING OIL, DIGITAL & KNIFE PAINTING
Dr Kumari said that all throughout her school and college days, she only used water colours for her paintings. She learnt oil painting only about five years back and has been doing it regularly since then. “I learned oil painting about 5 years back and followed it up with digital painting and knife painting. I learned all these different forms of painting by watching YouTube videos.”
For the uninitiated, knife painting is done with a knife that has a thin flexible blade for mixing, scraping, or applying paint.
She says she paints more for others than for herself. “I love to paint, no doubt. But I love to paint to make others happy through my paintings. All my paintings depict the beauty of nature and the human heart. They highlight beauty and goodness – qualities that make one happy to be alive.”
In 2017, while she was posted in Guwahati, she published her first book on paintings, Happy World of Paintings, a rich collection of her oil paintings, water colours, digital paintings and craft works. The topics vary from landscape, flora and fauna to humanity.
She also organized two solo painting exhibitions at State Art Gallery and Artists’ Guild in Guwahati and, also, participated in group art exhibitions of her department in Guwahati and Delhi. She published the second volume of Happy World of Paintings in 2018.
ABOUT THE BUREAUCRAT
In her career of more than three decades, Dr Kumari has played a crucial role in increasing the tax collection in India.
She served in Delhi, Gujarat, Bihar (her home state) and the Northeast region in various capacities as an officer of Income Tax department. For many years, tax collection in the Northeast region was almost nil. With her efforts, tax collection increased. Revenue grew from nil to 50 million in Mizoram in 2018.
She also played a crucial role in prosecution of 142 cases of tax defaults in 2018. She was a member of the committee constituted for TDS Prosecution in 2018 by the CBDT, New Delhi.
Her achievement in the field of literature is no less. She has published books on her paintings, poems, satires, and opinion pieces, all of which have been well received by the readers. In 2017, she published a Hindi poetry book called Deshraag. She is also a columnist and writes for a daily Hindi newspaper.
