painter nirupa naik is not known to smile too easily when one enters her workplace an apartment adjacent to her home in st inez there is no formal exchange of greetings instead naik has already left the door open for the visitor to enter one is expected to find a comfortable place to seat oneself and when the softspoken naik is coerced to speak the familiarity with which she talks and the pleasantness of her persona are striking naik transmits the same instant sense of calmness through her paintings when naik speaks of her background it is not difficult to imagine the artist as the simple village girl from savoiverem awestruck by the beauty of nature surrounding her which forms the core of her paintings to datemy mother liked doing glass paintings and embroidery work also we have many wellknown artists hailing from our village whose paintings adorned the walls of savoiverem temple watching the art surrounding me i soon took to painting as a child at a very young age said naikher interest in painting led her to the goa college of art which was then affiliated to bombay university during my travel to the college in panaji i would admire the beauty of rainsoaked nature and the lotusfilled ponds of savoiverem said naik the delight still visible in her eyes the scenes inspired her first award winning creation titled lotus this came as the true encouragement to naik her first state art award in the student category the artist has won hordes of state art awards and other recognitions since including the goa state cultural award painting in 201112 a feat that belies her unassuming personanaik received guidance as a student from the likes of the artist and cartoonist laxman pai who was a faculty at the institute then tracing his mothers footprints the artists son ishan too has now joined the art collegefor the painter second to the inspiration provided by nature is classical indian music and the lucidity of the pen of konkani poets like manohar rai sardessai and bakibab borkarthe cultural practices i witnessed in my childhood also have formed themes of my paintings she saidnaik even trained in music for five years before her marriage to banker satyawani would participate in akashwanis sugam sangeet programme the last time i returned after performing on a radio show my mother died the following day i have not sung since said naikit has not been easy for the artist to balance her personal life and a job while still carrying on with her paintings i worked for 27 years as a designer of crafts at the goa governments design and development centre but i never stopped painting said naik who later opted for voluntary retirement to channelize all her energies towards paintingat times night was the only time she was left with to paintbut once she puts brush to canvas naik says that she is transported to another world in an old article she