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January 2003
Manveet Kaur Saluja is a professional artist born and raised in
New York. At an
early age Manu was attracted to the work of Michelangelo, Raphael
Rubens, and Da Vinci wishing someday to wield a paint brush with
such compelling skill. Her first formal art lessons were in classes
she began at age 11 near the local high school.
In 1989 she matriculated at Barnard College in Manhattan and
majored in psychology. Though she graduated magna cum laude
and won the Ida Markevich Lawrence Award for her research in
social psychology, she was certain her true passion was portrait
art.
Oil portraits are created
to celebrate accomplishments, honor the memory of a loved one, and
capture the beauty of a person. They are carefully designed works of
art passed down to future generations. A successful portrait artist
knows how to capture a person’s character visually. She must have
solid drawing skills, an excellent design sense, and handle paint
with purpose and confidence.
To acquire these skills Manu traded the
world of research for oil paints and picture making. She studied
drawing and painting at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York
City where she found her teacher John Frederick Murray.
For six years she worked from live models studying the forms
of the human figure, and the art of light, shadow, color and
composition. Her first success was a self-portrait in 1996--before
completing her B.F.A. in 1997 she was receiving commissions.
Manu’s
superior technique and devotion to her craft have yielded over 20
painting commissions in the last four years.
Her work now hangs in prestigious institutions and in the
homes of prominent families.
In 1999 she was unanimously selected by a panel of judges at
Teachers College, Columbia University to paint a posthumous portrait
of Professor Jeannette Fleischner. The life-size painting is on
permanent display at Teachers College in Manhattan.
In 1997 SVA presented her with the Silas Rhodes Award for
Outstanding Achievement in Illustration. She is a member of The
American Society of Portrait Artists
and was a finalist in The Artist Magazine’s 1999
portrait competition. Her paintings have been featured in Nishaan
Magazine
(IV/2002), House Magazine (Sept/Oct 2001), and the Graphis
New Talent Annual (1998).
With
almost 60%
of her portrait commissions coming from Sikhs in the United States
and Canada, Manu has created a stunning portfolio of accomplished
Sikhs. In
June 2002, eleven of her oil portraits were exhibited at the
Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C. as part of
the Sikh Heritage Gala Fundraiser and Dinner. Her clients have
included T. Sher Singh (Guelph, Canada),
Ishar Singh Bindra (sponsor of the Kuljit Kaur Bindra Chair
of Sikh Studies at Hofstra University in Long Island, New York),
Paul Singh and Kushwinder Kaur Bagga (Flourtown, PA),
Sonny Singh Chabra (president and CEO of the AMC corporation
in New York City), Gurvinder Singh Sahni and Gurpreet Singh (Old
Westbury, New York).
The
commissions signal both the quality of her work—referrals continue
to come in—as well as a rise in the appreciation and need for art
in the Sikh community. Manu
has expanded her repertoire to include Sikh historical portraiture.
Her current project is a life-size, full-length portrait of Maharaja
Ranjit Singh shown in full-dress armor as the cunning warrior he
was.
In
between her regular portrait commissions, Manu has been preparing
for the painting of the
Lion of the Punjab:
traveling to London for
research, doing concept sketches, and assembling props such as a
Sikh helmet, breast plates, vambraces, and a custom model of Ranjit
Singh’s throne.
The
Sikh Foundation has invited Manu to speak at the opening of the
Satinder Kaur Kapany Gallery at the San Francisco Asian Art Museum
as one of five women representing the vanguard in contemporary Sikh
art. At the opening in April 2003 she will speak on the art of
portraiture and present her work on the Ranjit Singh project. Manu
is proud to add the
noble imagery of Sikhism to the grand tradition of portrait art.
Click
here to view some of Manu's portrait commissions
Manu
travels to clients for commissions. Her art studio and home is in
New York City . For more information regarding oil portraits call
718-459-8784 or write to
manu@sikhportraits.com
Manu's website:
www.sikhportraits.com
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