HYDERABAD: Dr Amrita Gandhi has been an artist and dentist all her life. She doesn’t separate passion and profession as there is a blend in the two practices. Besides, after over two decades of dental practice and motherhood, she finally has a lot more free time to work on art, her favourite passtime.
She also has her own studio called Studio A which she opened two years ago above her clinic called Spectrum Dental Centre in Secunderabad. She has been working here for 22 years. “This allows me to be flexible with how long I can spend with my patients and my art,” Amrita stated. Now with her only son grown up, she can spare more time for painting, going “full throttle” with her art career.
The art show, taking place at the Taj Mahal Palace in Mumbai, is specifically for dentists to flaunt their artwork. The group organising this, ArtODontics, is the first art platform for and by dentists. Artists from all over India will be there from December 20-22. Dr Amrita has been specialising in watercolours for the past few years and will be displaying four paintings for this show, focusing on portraiture and figurative art.
Inspired by her mother, the multitalented dentist has been doing art since she was a child. She watched her mother paint throughout her childhood so it always stuck with her. “You know how all of us dabble in art when we’re young? It was just like that,” Amrita explained, adding: “Generally if it’s just a hobby, you eventually forget about it. But I kept going back to art, from when I was a child to when I was carrying my son. That’s how I knew I needed to pursue my passion more seriously.”
Besides practising dentistry in her clinic and creating art, Amrita also helps out with the Enchante Beauty Academy which trains youngsters for beauty pageants. Run by Shreya Rao, Miss India runner up 2018 and Samaira Wallani, this academy makes use of Amrita’s aesthetic dentistry to help students with their smiles. The alliance came about when the dentist worked on Shreya’s smile for the Miss India Pageant. Talking about her plans for the coming year, Dr Amrita mentioned that she would be doing two international workshops in 2020. But this hustler doesn’t stop at just shows. “I’m looking at planning and formatting an online course,” the 48-year-old artist has been taking personal classes at her studio as well as on Facebook. She recalls, “When I wanted to learn watercolour, there was not much information available and I really had to struggle for 13 years to understand how the medium works.” She hopes to rid other artists of this struggle by providing more help online, which also has an international reach as well as give more classes in person at her studio.