Travels form an integral part of Paresh Maity’s life and undeniably lie at the heart of his art. An indefatigable traveller, Paresh has traversed the continents, seeking inspiration from landscapes and monuments, from history and people, from cities and hamlets. His travels, which have taken him to many destinations in India and abroad, have shaped his palette as he has instinctively imbibed the essence of each place in his work. The World on a Canvas–featuring the artist’s drawings, watercolours, oils, mixed media and sculptures drawn from his travels over the years–gives the reader an insight into the mind of one of contemporary India’s great artists.

Complementing this visual journey are Nemai Ghosh’s arresting portraits of the artist at work. For those who love Paresh Maity’s art, or have been observers of Nemai Ghosh’s black-and-white photography, it is an extraordinary treat.

Eminent film personality Sharmila Tagore, an admirer of Paresh’s art, provides the textual counterpoint to this visual travelogue. She charts Paresh’s journey from the small town of Tamluk, where he first realised his true calling as an artist, to Kolkata where he studied art, and from Rajasthan, where his art underwent a tectonic shift, to Venice, which enthralled the colourist in him. Drawing from memory, experiences and incidents gathered from her interactions with the artist, Sharmila presents to the reader aspects of the artist which have hitherto remained unknown. A critical essay by Kishore Singh on Paresh’s evolving style, and the maturity with which he handles his materials and subjects, enhances the narrative.

A voyage unlike any other, The World on a Canvas is as much about self-discovery as it is about story-telling, and is by far the definitive work on Paresh Maity, the man and the artist.

A Mythical Universe captures the remarkable journey of Jayasri Burman, one of India’s leading women artists, drawing upon her life and art through the decades. Jayasri’s art, derived from the rich pictorial folk tradition of India, has carved out its own singular idiom today.

As Prof. Partha Mitter describes in the book, “Jayasri’s themes deal with the feminine, with the empowerment of women through the traditional language of the sacred in Hinduism, her inspiration is the variety of incarnations of Shakti or female energy, the great Goddess, who is considered the mother of the universe. With her muted but engaged feminism, Jayasri Burman refashions the universe of Hindu mythology, which acquires in her paintings an entirely contemporary meaning and nuance. This is in the best sense tradition, reinterpreted, reinvented, revised and re-imagined for India of today”.

The book features images of Jayasri’s early works to those of the present and reveal her immense talent. Edited by Ina Puri, it is well researched with thoughtful essays written by some of the leading minds of our times, Partha Mitter, Ashok Vajpeyi and Pritish Nandy.

This book takes the reader on a journey that is quite unique. For the first time ever, you are allowed an insider’s view of how the artist works in his own private domain – at work in his studio. This is a private space of introspection or feverish activity, with the artist in solitude and in dialogue with his work.

Nemai Ghosh, celebrated for his stills of Satyajit Ray’s films, captures painters from Benodebehari Mukherjee, Jamini Roy to Manjit Bawa, Arpita Singh, sculptors Ramkinkar Baij to Dhruva Mistry at work, as they paint or sculpt. Chronologically, the volume traverses half a century, giving fascinating and rare vignettes of the names many an art aficionado is able to identify only through their signatures.

The book captures haunting portraits of Somnath Hore in his last days, M. F. Husain starting and completing a painting during the course of the shoot, Tyeb Mehta, K. G. Subramanyan, Jogen Chowdhury, A. Ramachandran, Ram Kumar, Rameshwar Broota, Nilima Sheikh, Madhvi Parekh in various moods of introspection as they are absorbed in their own and unique creative processes.

Collaborating on the project, editor Ina Puri and the eminent art historians and art critics Geeti Sen, Keshav Malik, R. Siva Kumar and Samir Dasgupta write on the deeper connect between art, artist and his/her philosophy, merging the visual and textual content with sensitivity to what remains at all times the focal point, the artist’s working process.

Documenting such rare photographs and works, the volume will remain invaluable as archival material for times to come.

Sayed Haider Raza is widely recognised as one of the masters of modern Indian art. Living in Paris for more than half a century, he has combined in his art the French sens la plastique and a deeply rooted Indian vision. From painting landscapes and cityscapes, he has moved to explore ‘inscapes’, the inner reality through the inner eyes.

Raza: A Life in Art is the most comprehensive book to appear on the long life and the rich artistic career of a great master. Written and edited by the eminent poet-critic and art-lover Ashok Vajpeyi, the book carries nearly 100 colour-reproductions of his paintings covering a period of sixty years, plus nearly 50 sketches, drawings etc. Besides, materials written in his own hand by Raza in English, Hindi and French, some rare photographs, including those of his first school in a village and the school register, press-clippings etc. would be appearing for the first time in this book. It contains a long new essay ’The Passionate Grace’, an essay by noted art-critic Yashodhara Dalmia and extracts from many French, German, Indian critics, Raza’s statements about his art and a lot of comprehensive up to date information about his life and art.

Art Alive Gallery has collaborated with French publisher Albin Michel, Paris to bring out an English version of the French publication Mandalas. The book traces the artistic journey of S. H. Raza’s Mandalas and juxtaposes his body of work to references from the ancient Indian texts and correlated to the western thought and literature to explain universal parallels of the concept. The book features 45 full colour reproductions of Raza’s masterly works that are accompanied by texts from the ancient Indian tradition - Vedas, Upanishads, Puranas, Bhagvad Gita... or later - Lalla, Kabir, Ramakrishna and Gandhi as well as Western literature - Baudelaire, Rilke, Jung, Kandinsky.

If Nature is the greatest artist of them all, then Kerala, no doubt, is her magnum opus. In this canvas of a million hues of green, Nature has left some of her most beautiful impressions – emerald green backwaters, lush-green fields, blue green hills… All imparting a beauty infused with a rare innocence to the land; that envelops every visitor in a strange peace.

Kerala’s beauty has found expression in some of the world’s most popular works including books, films and paintings. ‘An Enchanting Journey’ is another tribute to God’s Own Country by one of the finest artists of our time, Paresh Maity – a painter who believes in the all pervasiveness of nature and yearns to understand more and more about nature.

In this visual travelogue that is as much about self-discovery as story telling, the artist unveils some of the most endearing and refreshing works on God’s Own Country. Providing the perfect accompaniment to this visual journey are the photographs of Nemai Ghosh - celebrated for his stills of Satyajit Ray's films and the text by Kerala-born Ravi Shankar, one of India’s renowned political cartoonists and writers.

For the uninitiated on Kerala, this book is an excellent prelude; for the familiar it is a new, yet nostalgic trip back to the land.Truly a celebration of Kerala, this book will no doubt take Kerala even closer to the heart of the world.

Thota Vaikuntam is a legend in contemporary Indian art. His dark and dusky beauties, the Telangana women, have become icons much loved and sought after by the connoisseurs, as are his pandits and other village folk. Besides his work as a painter, Vaikuntam has also worked on film set designs and with children. There is an interesting mix of tradition and contemporaneity in his work. Very few have had the chance to see some of his amazing charcoal drawings and etchings of the earlier period which feature in the book.

Who is Thota Vaikuntam? Where does his inspiration come from??This illustrated book, first of its kind on this much celebrated but hardly written about artist, is an attempt to tell the story of the man and his Telangana women, his encounters with destiny, which has brought him to the high pedestal where he is today. ??The book conceived and edited by Sushma Bahl, launches the Art Alive Masters Series and includes thoroughly researched articles and visuals featuring myriad aspects of the artist's eventful life and a few close-ups of the large and impressive body of his work.

K. S. Radhakrishnan is one of the most notable among the new generation of sculptors who has successfully brought about a definitive resurgence in Indian sculpture. Like many of his contemporaries he is a figurative sculptor, but his preference for modelling and bronze casting over new materials sets him apart from the rest of them. Recharging age-old sculptural processes with a new sensibility, thus is the singular challenge he brings to modern Indian sculpture. And this makes him a modernist - who approaches his work with discernable ambition and considerable aplomb while steering clear of brinkmanship.

With celebration of sensuality as one of its running themes, his work is at once both intimate and universal in its appeal. A personal commemorative sculpture, with a scale and presence that holds well in natural settings, his work has found permanent home in a number of public collections all over the world.

This book exhaustively illustrated with beautifully shot photographs by well known photographers and accompanied by an insightful text by R. Siva Kumar, brings into focus, Rakhakrishnan's work of the last 20 years.

This pictorial monograph focuses on Shuvaprasanna's work with Krishna as the icon. The book carries an article by Sushma Bahl and about 20 full size pictures of his recent works.

This pictorial monograph focuses on the bronze sculptures of K.S. Radhakrishnan with an article written by noted critic Dr. Geeti Sen. Carries some exquisite shots of 15 sculptures by Pradeep Das Gupta.