Self-Discovery is a process. Jay Varma will tell you how it can also be slow and consuming. The Bengaluru-based artist, who is a fifth generation descendent of the legendary painter Raja Ravi Varma, kept away from oils for a significant part of his life, because it “intimidated” him. Shying away from his talent—one that runs in the blood—he stuck to pencils mostly. It’s only in the last few years that something changed inside him, forcing him to pick up the paint brush. At 60, Varma is debuting with a solo exhibition, The Primacy of 5, at Bengaluru’s gallery g, which will showcase his oil paintings commissioned for private collectors.

The series, on display till April 30, sees Varma imagine the “panchakanyas” from the Ramayana and Mahabharata—Ahalya, Draupadi, Tara, Mandodari and Sita—as vastly different from what his ancestor had envisioned in his paintings, while still upholding the latter’s artistic legacy.