“I plugged into something wild in me,” says Delhi-based artist Ritika Aurora, without fuss or flourish. “Working on my solo show made me believe in my own wild force of nature.” That solo show — her first, titled ‘A Force of Nature’ — was held at Kalamkaar Gallery, Bikaner House (New Delhi), from 25th to 30th April 2025, running daily from 11 am to 7 pm. A celebration of women and nature, the exhibition brought together Aurora’s recent works (mixed media, oil on canvas) — vivid, textured, and rooted in intuition. Curated by Georgina Maddox, the show took viewers into a universe where golden-winged women floated, flowers bloomed unapologetically, and soft storms of ink and paint whispered stories of strength.

“In my work, woman and nature are parallel forces,” Ritika says. “And I feel they come together generating a very positive synergy. This synergy happens naturally in my work since I’m a woman drawn to nature, from which I draw my inspiration. Whether it’s the rising sun, blooming flowers, or the birds that fly freely.” Her paintings seem to hold this freedom — literally and metaphorically. Her canvases shimmer with gold, ripple with misty browns and off-whites, and pulse with intricate details: paisleys, lace, henna. There’s a rhythm in her style that feels like breath — slow, deliberate, but always alive.

“Gold,” she explains, “is a symbol of prosperity, and also it brings a very rich hue to my canvas. Women with wings symbolise breaking the barriers that society imposes on them, and butterflies are symbolic of a journey where they metamorphose from humble caterpillar to the glorious and beautiful butterfly.” 

And it’s not just visual metaphor. There’s an entire philosophy underlying the textures: femininity not as softness, but as force; nature not as background, but as teacher. “As a woman, as a human being,” she says, “we need to go back to nature, value it, and learn from it — and not take it for granted.” This clarity of thought is matched by a deep sense of emotion. “I had hoped that the visitors feel the same positive energy that I experience when I paint my work. They linger, and they find themselves dreaming, entering a world of fantasy and freedom.”

If that sounds dreamy, the journey to this show was anything but. A former homemaker who trained under Elli Milan, Dimitra Milan, and John Milan, Ritika has grown into an artist and a mentor at the Milan Art Institute USA. Her days are a mix of online mentoring, managing her home, and creating complex artworks layer by layer — paint, ink, pastel, texture, pattern, symbolism. Her style is steeped in the Art Nouveau and Abstract traditions, but with a language that is completely her own. Even so, putting together a solo show, she says, wasn’t easy.

“I overcame my fears and tensions about producing such a large body of work and showing it to a large audience in India,” she shares, “although I have shown in group shows, both in India and abroad, putting together a solo is quite demanding. And I think plugging into my wild energy and believing in my wild force of nature came from working on my solo show.” “My art,” she says, “serves as a voice that speaks to the transformative power of embracing one’s true self.” 

That voice, in her paintings, speaks in layers. In the textures of henna prints. In the glitter of gold leaf. In the unspoken longing of winged figures reaching skyward, and in the strange grace of paper boats floating on choppy waters. These elements, according to curator Georgina Maddox, are not random. They are part of an intuitive and experimental process that starts with free-flowing inks and ends in compositions that feel alive. “Ritika’s work,” Georgina says, “reminds viewers of their connection to the universe and their ability to overcome challenges.”

The idea of overcoming is central. Ritika’s career itself is built on self-belief and reinvention. She entered the art world later than most, switching from homemaking to full-time artistic practice. But instead of trying to blend in, she ventured into her own themes — of growth, evolution, feminine power, and nature. Her motifs — flowers, wings, butterflies — become symbols. The winged women are not flying for show. They’re flying because they can.

The works that were part of ‘A Force of Nature’ are not uniform, but they belong to the same universe where colour, form, and emotion come together. The palette of pinks, golds, browns, and off-whites is deliberate, as is the symbolism. Each canvas speaks of possibility.

Ritika’s art, much like her journey, grows on the viewer, the way a vine might wind itself slowly around a tree. “There’s a moment,” she says, “when I’m painting, when everything else fades away. I feel like I’m entering a different world. And I think the viewers feel that too. It’s what I want them to feel.”

Her pieces do not shy away from delicacy, but they also carry a message: both women and nature deserve to be seen in their full force. “We need to protect the forces of nature and femininity,” she says, “because they sustain life and inspire growth.” She simply paints what she knows to be true. Her art, the process, the journey — each of them circles back to the same pulse: movement. Change. Transformation. And at the heart of it all, a woman who believed that her wildness wasn’t a flaw but her source of inspiration.