I find [human] figures the most difficult to paint, so I paint them more and more,” artist Milburn Cherian exclaims, much to our confusion. If you saw her paintings, which depict an intricate sea of people, you wouldn’t think it to be true. “I like to punish myself, and make my life complicated.” In her ongoing exhibition, Mythical Realms, we discover a collection of paintings spanning the last decade, with a fascinating attention to detail.

While the overarching Biblical theme is the first thing you’ll notice, as you look closer, you’ll discover that each painting opens like a vivid story with characters, motifs and scenery popping up as you go along. “I don’t plan anything—my mind is blank when I begin, unless something specific is commissioned to me. I start at one corner of the canvas with elements like the sky and plants. It’s like writing a book—I’ll draw one figure and then get an idea and flow it into the painting. Until the very end, I have no clue what the completed work is going to look like.”