Daily life close up on the Varanasi bathing ghats in clear morning light. Wide sandstone steps fill the frame, busy with figures: a saffron-robed sadhu under a green umbrella, women in red and yellow saris, bathers at the waterline, a dog stretched on the warm stone. Lines of washed laundry flap between the buildings in pink, blue and white, and a red temple shikhara rises at right above stacked old houses. A wooden boat noses in at lower right. Sandhya Kaushik builds the steps in dragged ochre and sandstone, then sets each figure as a single confident dab of saffron, red or white.

It is the lived-in, human face of Banaras rather than the postcard. The narrative detail rewards a large living-room wall or an entryway that can hold a closer look.

• Original hand-painted acrylic on stretched canvas
• Palette-knife impasto
• 21:9 panoramic landscape
• Made to order at your chosen size
• Frame: stretched canvas, or floater (black/white/gold)
• Signed by Sandhya Kaushik
• Certificate of Authenticity