“Over in west London, at Piano Nobile, is a glowingly beautiful exhibition of figurative watercolours by Shanti Panchal…He paints people almost exclusively, though this exhibition (his first ever in a commercial gallery) includes two serene still-life paintings of a watering…

“Though he is based in London, Shanti Panchal’s work reflects his strong Indian influences, including Jain miniatures and the village in which he group up…He is renowned for his large-scale watercolours of subtle vibrancy, at once movingly archaic and starkly…

“There is a general perception that watercolour has particular limitations and that consequently the best approach, and certainly the safest, is to work within the traditional technique of painting from light to dark, using a succession of thin washes that…

“Born in Gujarat, western India, in 1951, Shanti Panchal studied art in Bombay before coming to London on a British Council scholarship in 1978. He has made his home in this country ever since, with regular trips back to India,…