Reflections on the glass also become a part of the landscape. And sometimes the raindrops contain their own mini landscape, transforming how we see.
Poonam Khanna is an emerging Toronto-based artist working primarily in acrylics. She discovered her love of painting nine years ago at a paint night event she attended. Since then, she has been passionate about her pursuit of painting, making it an almost daily practice.
She has taken many classes and workshops through the Avenue Road Art School, the Toronto School of Arts and the Art Gallery of Ontario, among other organizations.
Poonam began exhibiting her work in 2021, and has appeared in more than 30 group shows, including the Riverdale ArtWalk, the Square Foot Show and the Toronto Outdoor Art Fair. She was juried into the Federation of Canadian Artists as an elected member in 2022 and had her first solo show in that same year.
Artist Statement
Cities can be beautiful even at their dreariest and many of my paintings capture the loveliness of rainy day scenes in cities. I like to capture how lights and reflections can add a layer of abstraction to the scenery around us. When it rains, I often head out to take pictures through glass — car windows, bus shelters and even a piece of glass from an old frame. The rain on the glass transforms and distorts the scenery as objects blur, distort and melt into one another. Reflections on the glass also become a part of the landscape. And sometimes the raindrops contain their own mini landscape, transforming how we see.
These pictures form the starting point for my paintings, which rely on soft edges and vibrant colour grounds shining through. I further abstract the landscape as I paint.