With her dark kohl-lined eyes and expressive face, Rekha Rodwittiya paints a striking picture. Though her artistic journey began with Ebrahim Alkazi of Art Heritage supporting tentative first steps, it was Pheroza Godrej of Cymroza who was Rodwittiya’s unwavering champion as she found herself as an artist. The 48-year-old, who has been painting for the past two-and-a-half decades, is neither coy about her age nor her feminist inclinations. Presented by Sakshi gallery, her first solo show in London, Second Skin, opens in June. The artist unravels her creative vision to Verve.

What inspired you to become an artist?
I talk about it in my limited-edition book of essays… and they lived happily ever after, published recently. My father was in the air force and I grew up in spaces where there was less interaction because of camp life. So my creative self became my companion. I would be preoccupied with drawing in my notebooks. Art for me was this consistent something that was meaningful. It remained as a sense of comfort, which I then began to articulate. When people would ask me what I wanted to do, I’d tell them I wanted to be a painter.

Did your upbringing expose you to the arts?
I did not come from a typical Indian family. My father Ardishar Palamkote was a Zoroastrian Parsi and my mother Komala Raju is a south Indian Roman Catholic. But my father was an atheist. By the time I was 17, I too became one. Growing up with my parents and elder sister Shireen gave me a strange kind of sophisticated otherness. We would listen to Western classical music on All India Radio. My father was an avid reader so we were exposed to wonderful topics of literature.

Where did you hone your artistic talents?
I studied at the M.S. University of Baroda. I did a course in painting and then completed my MA. Later I received the Inlaks scholarship to study at the Royal College of Art in London.

What made you specialise in painting?
That is one of the things I am addressing in the text I am writing for the London show. It’s an interview with myself titled ‘In conversation with my mother’s daughter’ where I ask myself why I chose to paint. I think I am able to address my imagination best through painting. Articulation is not something that comes easily because there are so many things you need to graft into language. I find it satisfying to create the collaborations and make them meaningful through my painting. It becomes the face that holds the articulation.