About Me

Hi everyone,

I am Akanksha. A self-taught artist. Based in Birmingham, United Kingdom.

Initially, I loved painting, mostly sketching sceneries as a child. But life happens, exams happen, deadlines happen, I moved countries so there was no time to spare or pursue further. In 2019, during my summer break from University, I decided to give painting a go and the journey started from there.

I travel a lot with my family and friends, and with all those amazing pictures gathered, I loved bringing the scenery back to life by painting them from my perspective. Then I stumbled across Mandalas. Creating Mandalas can be a very good activity to reduce stress. It helped time and time again during exams seasons, work stress, life stress and many such similar situations, we all go through in life.

One day, I came across this beautiful Indian folk art called Warli from Maharashtra. Then went on to explore Phad from Rajasthan, Tanjore art from Tamil Nadu, Persian art, Saura, Bengal Pattachitra, Kalighat, Odisha Pattachitra, Lippan from Kutch and many more. Did some research and realised countries like India have a lot of folk arts and most of them are endangered due to the current generation not exploring them too much. I decided to learn about them as much as possible and incorporated them in modern decors so that those particular style of arts can reach more audience.

So apart from landscapes and mandalas, I started making wood crafts and decors such as keychains, wall hangings, fridge magnets, bookmarks etc with the Indian folk-art designs incorporated in them.

Through several craft fair’s, I eventually found that a lot of people wanted to create the pieces that I was selling, by themselves but didn’t know how to. So, I started conducting workshops as well, as a way to spread the information which took me quite a lot of trial and error to master.

I particularly enjoy teaching neurodivergent children. They each create such unique pieces of work, makes you wonder how a group of children being taught the same art piece, create different pieces through their own perspectives. Every month, we run two art and craft online sessions, free of cost to the children- partnering with an Autism focussed Charity. If you wish to join your neurodivergent children as well then feel free to contact myself.

If you liked any of my works and wish to decorate your homes with them, please scroll through the categories and make your purchases. If you wish to try making them yourself or learn the techniques to replicate them, check out my workshop page for details about upcoming and ongoing workshops: Online and Offline.

Feel free to contact me through email, WhatsApp or other social media platforms for any queries, collaborations, commissions or purchase enquiries.