Black Birds — Kerala Backwaters | Indian Heritage Sites Collection

Black Birds — Kerala Backwaters, 2023

Acrylic on Canvas | 51 × 61 cm

This painting captures the serene, timeless beauty of the Kerala Backwaters at dusk — a landscape of still water, swaying palms, and the quiet rhythm of life along India's most celebrated waterway. A traditional houseboat drifts gently across the foreground, its passengers at rest, while two black birds sweep low across the luminous surface of the water.

MINA's expressive brushwork renders the sky in soft sweeps of blue, gold, and white — a sky caught between afternoon and evening, where the sun dissolves behind a canopy of tall palms. The water below mirrors the light with a warm, shimmering glow, creating a sense of stillness and depth that draws the eye inward.

The black birds in flight add movement and life to the composition — a signature element of MINA's work, where the natural world is never merely backdrop but an active presence in the story of a place.

Painted during MINA's time living and working in India, this work is part of the Indian Heritage Sites Collection — a body of contemporary acrylic paintings inspired by the landscapes, waterways, gardens, markets, and cultural environments she experienced across Kerala, Mumbai, New Delhi, and beyond.

MINA's style is characterised by expressive colour, soft atmospheric light, and a deep sensitivity to place. Her paintings do not simply document — they remember. Each work carries the mood, the movement, and the quiet poetry of the moment she encountered.

Part of the Indian Heritage Sites Collection — Landscape, Memory and Cultural Heritage.
Available for exhibition and curatorial review. For enquiries, please contact Mina's Art Space.