KOCHI: A young artist from Chennithala, Alappuzha, who migrated to the United Kingdom to pursue her higher studies has won accolades at the British Council’s Study UK Creative Connections 2026 exhibition that concluded in New Delhi recently.
During her postgraduate course in contemporary art practice at De Montfort University in Leicester, Amritha Jalaja Devi was able to develop a unique style of painting by incorporating her home state’s traditional art with British portraiture.
The 26-year-old’s ‘Shared Silence,’ chosen for the international exhibition, brings together creative work connected with her UK education and cross-cultural exchange. The acrylic artwork on canvas, created in 2024, shares the depth of human relationship. The British Council also published a profile highlighting Amritha’s work and the experiences that have shaped her artistic practice.
“My work explores how the body holds emotion through posture and stillness rather than overt action. I focus on restrained gestures such as relaxed hands, tilted heads, and resting bodies to convey themes of mental wellbeing, solitude, care and resilience. Figures are frequently placed within domestic or familiar environments, allowing space and setting to support the emotional narrative,” says Amritha.
“The Delhi exhibition was a really good experience. I was very happy and the response was positive. It was a valuable opportunity to present my work and connect with people from different creative backgrounds,” the alumna of Mavelikkara Raja Ravi Varma College of Fine Arts told TNIE.
Amritha is currently based in Northamptonshire and is exploring possibilities by staying connected to her roots while reaching out to an international audience. Her figurative paintings explore themes including migration, memory, belonging and human connection, drawing inspiration from her own experience of moving between Keralam and the UK.
“I primarily paint people close to me, observing gesture, posture, and subtle expression. During the Covid lockdown, extended periods of rest and isolation led me to reflect on sleep as a form of restoration and emotional balance.
Through painting, I began to examine different states of rest — deep sleep, exhaustion, quiet waiting, and contemplative pause. These often-overlooked moments became a way to visually translate emotional and psychological experiences onto canvas,” Amritha said.
“I work primarily with acrylic, oil, soft pastel, and mixed media, often on large-scale canvases. Colour is used deliberately to establish mood and psychological depth. Living as an international student in the UK shaped my perspective through experiences of displacement, observation, and reflection,” she said.
Amritha was part of a group of five artists that created a large mural near Alappuzha Light House as part of Kochi Biennale Foundation’s public art project Varavazhikal. A work based on Keralam’s mural tradition graces the 90’s Mix restaurant in Leicester, where she depicted teashop, Thrissur Pooram and a local football match. Amritha’s father Vikraman Nair works in Muscat and her mother Jalaja Devi is a housewife.