One of Sunita Kumar’s paintings to be exhibited next month in a New York gallery

After Nehru Centre in London, M.F. Husain and Sunita Kumar will hold an exhibition in New York at Art India gallery from September 18 on Blessed Mother Teresa. A self-taught painter, Sunita Kumar was very close to Mother Teresa for 35 years and has been associated with Missionaries of Charity since 1965.

Kumar uses acrylic colours in light shades to depict Mother Teresa in various situations, real and imagined. She is surrounded by labourers, slum dwellers and their children. She is in flower gardens or among drifting autumn leaves. She also rides camels and elephants. When Mother arrived in Delhi for the first time, she had seen these animals on the streets.

Nirmal Hriday in Kalighat, from where Mother Teresa first began her good work, is painted against a pale, pink background with red roses in front. Sunita Kumar has painted the train to Darjeeling, where Mother Teresa got her call.

Sunita Kumar says she has been painting for a long time. When she is in the mood she can paint all night. Mother Teresa had seen her paintings and liked them. She signed some of her favourites but wondered why Kumar did not paint her face and eyes. Kumar explains that she was more interested in Mother’s spirit — the figure in a white sari with a blue border.