People find a passion in the arts from different places. For Sangeetha Gopalakrishnan, chip design was an electrical engineer after 19 years.
“I feel a very creative person because engineers are very creative problem solvers and I feel that I do it in my art practice,” she said.
Gopalakrishnan is an Irvine -based oil painter and shows her work on Saturday, September 20, in Newport Beach's 20th annual art in the park.
Sangeetha, an immigrant from India, came to the USA in 2007 to pursue her career in engineering. Even as a child, she had a passion for mathematics and problem solving. However, this way of thinking does not differ so much from the approach to art, said Gopalakrishnan, and in addition to her love for engineering, the lush south -wing landscape triggered a dedication to nature – one that entered her art decades later.
“I try to solve these problems and capture things,” said Gopalakrishnan. “I have the feeling that I had it in me. My upbringing in India was a free spirit. I was only allowed to create things and do things alone.”
In 2020, Gopalakrishnan had a calling during the Covid 19 pandemic. She always loved nature, hiking and backpacks in California and the surrounding states. It founded the OC women outdoors and the wilderness group of women and still leads a community that enables women to research nature with confidence. With this as the starting point, Gopalakrishnan began to paint landscapes of nature, and until 2022 she took up the brush every day. Two years later she resigned from engineering and devoted herself to her art.
Today Gopalakrishnan often wears a paint set next to her backpack equipment on the paths if a breathtaking sunset or a perfect tree is in sight. Her work is based in the California landscapes that she knows exactly, but her collection includes a whole range of American nature outdoors, from coastal cliffs and alpine lakes to Desert Canyon.
“I definitely do a lot of local hikes and color here, but my favorite places are in the mountains of Sierra Nevada,” said Gopalakrishnan. “I am the most backpack there. I go every season to back. I love the desert. I go to Utah quite a bit to paint. I love North California, the Redwoods and the coastal forests. Wherever I can hike and get into the wild, I go.”
Gopalakrishnan's care for nature extends beyond taking a canvas. Most oil painters use a kind of chemical or solvent species such as turpentine as thinner, which reduces the viscosity of the oil. Gopalacrishnan not.
“I found out my own way to use it,” Gopalakrishnan. “I only use oil paint like this.
As such, every piece of Gopalakrishnans is created art with non -toxic, environmentally friendly materials. She is a Californian artist for Green Business Certified for her sustainable creation process that she is proud of.
“If you go to my studio, I can breathe because I know that there is nothing to be poisonous,” said Gopalakrishnan. “If I accidentally lick something, I know that I will not die. I think these things are important for me as an artist, for collectors who get my art and also for the country.”
Find out more about Gopalakrishnan's work at SangeAtiat.com.
The art of Gopalakrishnan will be exhibited in the 20th annual art in the Park in Newport Beach, which takes place on September 20 in the Civic Center. Find out more about the event at Newportbeachhartsfoundation.org/art-in-park.html.