Reflection is second nature to Jenny Bhatt, an artist engaged in a spiritual search and grappling with the existential dilemma that confronts all thinking individuals.

Her appetite for life is immense, understandable when you discover the philosophy that drives Jenny Bhatt: "You have to live… until you die!" Travel is one of her pet passions, but her all-time love is creating art - whether it involves getting down and dirty with paint or playing with sanitised tools on her laptop. Though she studied Applied Art and went on to work with an advertising agency, draw cartoons, illustrate books and write art reviews, humour columns and children's stories, these creative pursuits have coalesced into the one occupation that gives her complete satisfaction. "I find that I am most at peace while working on a painting," she reflects.

Reflection is second nature to Jenny… and Colour, her latest collection of paintings at the Museum Gallery in Mumbai, captured the essence of who she is at present - an artist engaged in a spiritual search, grappling with the existential dilemma that confronts all thinking individuals at some stage. But far from being swamped by the questions, she finds answers in the images that evolve from the unbridled surge of energy when she allows the translucent acrylic paint to flow before restraining it with a timely stroke.

Using the head as a starting point, she explores colour, form and texture. Constructed with thin layers of fluid colour, which get denser as it forms shapes that are sometimes abstract, sometimes representational, the images are founded on a play of light. Though they induce a state of reflection, the touch of humour rendered by the cartoonist that lurks within, lightens the mood.

The acrylic medium is delicately handled, giving a feel of watercolour on canvas. Some of the works consist of a painting inscribed with a poem, interesting in its interactivity and adventurous in its irreverence. Indeed, this is no Jenny come lately!