Gangtok: Artist and academic Naresh Agarwal has launched a table calendar featuring a curated selection of twelve of his paintings, conceived as a way to bring his art into people’s homes across Sikkim and the rest of India.
Explaining the idea behind the initiative, Agarwal said he was reflecting on how his paintings could exist beyond galleries. He drew inspiration from Raja Ravi Verma, who in the late nineteenth century made affordable lithographs of his paintings of Hindu deities available to the public, turning them into familiar images in Indian households. “A table calendar felt like a good way to make it happen. That way, the physical versions would remain with people for at least a year,” Agarwal said.
The paintings in the calendar
The calendar brings together twelve paintings depicting different facets of Indian life and culture, with three works set in Sikkim. The selected paintings span a period from 1997 to 2022 and include ten watercolours, one oil painting and one acrylic work. The sizes range from 9×12 inches to as large as 2×3 feet. Collectively, the works reflect Agarwal’s personal life journey while carrying a broader Indian ethos.
One of the paintings was started in Gangtok and completed in Singapore, four were painted in Singapore, and seven were completed in Massachusetts, USA. The titles of the works combine phrases from Indian languages followed by English translations.
The January page, timed with Saraswati Puja, features Agarwal’s interpretation of Goddess Saraswati. Her lotus crown is flanked by swans, while peacocks form her necklace, earrings and bindi as she plays the veena. The painting is titled ‘Namastasyai – Salutations to her’.
The February page, aligned with Mahashivaratri, depicts Lord Shiva and is titled ‘Shivoham – I am he’. The title draws from Adiguru Shankacharya’s eighth-century poem Nirvana Shatakam, which speaks of the self as pure consciousness, beyond mind, intellect and ego.
Two paintings are inspired by the nineteenth-century works of William Simpson during his travels through British India. ‘Chalti chaki dekh kar – the wheel of life’ shows two women grinding corn, with an old man seated nearby and a child lying to the side. The title alludes to a couplet by the fifteenth-century mystic poet Kabir, reflecting on the transient nature of life. The second work, ‘Shahi hathi – the royal elephants’, begun in 2014 and completed in 2017, depicts elephants, a horse, tents and royalty in ceremonial splendour.
The May page, aligning with Buddha Jayanti and Saga Dawa, is titled ‘Siddhartha – Gautama Buddha’ and features an acrylic painting of a serene Buddha, created during a 31-day daily painting challenge in January 2022. The following page shows ‘Om mani padme hum – prayer wheels at Enchey’, depicting one of Gangtok’s most revered monasteries and recalling memories central to Agarwal’s childhood.
July’s page, ‘Jagannatha – Lord of the Universe’, coincides with the Rath Yatra festival and portrays Lord Jagannatha with his shankha and chakra, flanked by Subhadra and Balabhadra, who holds the gada and hal.
The August page, titled ‘Tiranga – A Taj called India’, aligns with Independence Day celebrations. Agarwal began this oil painting in 1997 in Gangtok to mark fifty years of India’s independence. Dominated by the colours of the national flag around the Taj Mahal, the painting travelled with him from Gangtok to Singapore and later to California via Hong Kong, before being completed in Singapore in 2003.
September features ‘Padharo Mahre Des – welcome to my country’, a portrait of an elderly man in a turban playing a long bamboo flute while seated on a cane chair in Jodhpur, Rajasthan. The title references a folk tune based on Raag Maand.
The October page presents an imagined scene of Mahatma Gandhi walking through the forests of Barsey in West Sikkim. Titled ‘Ekla chalo re – Walk alone’, the painting takes its name from Rabindranath Tagore’s famous Bengali song encouraging moral courage in solitude. The work is also notable for being a watercolour executed on canvas rather than paper.
November returns to Sikkim with ‘Tsomgo chho – Prayer flags across Changu lake’, capturing the onset of winter and the colour of prayer flags against the blue landscape. The December page, ‘Let me sow love – Mother Teresa’, aligns with Christmas and the year’s end, portraying Mother Teresa in prayer and drawing its title from the prayer of Saint Francis.
About the artist
The back page of the calendar introduces Agarwal. Born and raised in Gangtok, Sikkim, he is currently an artist and professor based in Greater Boston, Massachusetts, USA. He spent nearly fourteen years in Singapore and sixteen years in Massachusetts.
Agarwal began drawing and painting at the age of six, initially learning to draw the lotus flower from his sister before copying images of Hindu gods and goddesses. He had no formal art training until later in life. At Tashi Namgyal Academy in Gangtok, a teacher, Sanjay Purohit, encouraged him to see painting as a process that could unfold over time. As part of a painting group, he worked on oil paintings over several months after school and on weekends.
Primarily working in watercolour and oil, Agarwal has also explored acrylic, pencil and other media. His approach has focused on synthesis—reconciling apparent contradictions rather than viewing the world through rigid labels. His subjects include folk life and architecture in India, landscapes in Sikkim and Massachusetts, flowers and portraits.
He has won several awards in school and university painting competitions. His works have appeared on book covers, magazines and university holiday cards, and have been exhibited in group and solo shows in Gangtok, Singapore and Greater Boston. In 2007, he travelled to the Philippines with another artist and a television crew, where his painting process was featured on the programme “Travelling Palette”, with the artwork auctioned for charity.
To further his practice, Agarwal has undertaken extensive training with contemporary Indian master artists. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he completed 70 hours of workshops with Nishikant Palande and Kalaarambh. In 2021, he finished a seven-month Art Fundamentals course under Vikrant Shitole, receiving a ‘highly commended’ award. In 2022, he completed 61 daily paintings as part of the Strada Easel Challenge and also undertook a four-month watercolour course at ChitraSutra Art Academy. Between 2023 and 2025, he passed yearly art examinations conducted by Suro Bharati Sangeet Kala Kendra with excellence, earning a diploma. He continues to train under Arnab Bera through weekly sketching and painting sessions.
Getting the calendar
The calendar is priced at Rs. 250 in Sikkim (Rs. 1,100 for five copies) and is available at Sarita Emporium on M.G. Marg in Gangtok. For buyers in the rest of India, the calendar is priced at Rs. 300, including shipping, and can be ordered by emailing nareshag@yahoo.com. Agarwal’s work can also be viewed online at www.nareshagarwal.com and on Instagram at nareshag.paintings.
Also Read: Arunachal: New ginger species discovered in Siang Valley