Diminutive artist, Payal Khandwala, takes a gigantic step forward in her journey as an artist with her solo exhibition, Contour Drawings: The Female Nude at the Museum Art Gallery in Mumbai this month (February 5th to 11th). After working within the boundaries of minimalist abstraction for a while, she has vaulted back to her favourite subject: the nude. "Drawing has always been my first love," confesses the talented SNDT-trained award-winning fashion and textile designer who later pursued a degree in Fine Arts and Illustration at the Parsons School of Design in 1995.

While the origin of these oils on canvas is figurative, the artist has come a long way from merely executing technical drawings - as is evident from the distorted forms that materialise through the sketches done in pencil and watercolour. "Drawing on a canvas presented an altogether different problem for me," admits the talented draughtswoman. By relinquishing control of her medium to a pencil tied to the end of a long stick, she was able to step back and let the line take over. While the gesture and pose of her subject have been retained, the form has been abstracted through the use of line, colour and texture. "I didn't want to focus on making a 'good' drawing," she explains. "Instead, I wanted to preserve the impulse and expression of a quick figure study on paper while shifting the scale to a much larger format." So, don't be startled if you suddenly discover a hand or an eye emerging from images that appear to be abstract landscapes.

The effervescent Khandwala, whom Verve had featured among seven promising artists, recently, is no traditionalist, not by a long chalk. She is constantly innovating, as can be seen from the effortlessly stylish ways in which she expresses herself through inventive ensembles and hairstyles. Not surprisingly, she experiments with her medium like she does with her appearance.