Neeraj Sebastian, professor of drawing and painting
Photo credit Maxie Langenberg ’27.
BRUSHSTROKES OF BIOLOGY
By Jeremy Powers ’24
A molecular biologist turned painter, Neeraj Sebastian comes to COA with a broad range of life experiences to apply to his teaching and art practice. A soft-spoken man whose intentionality comes across clearly in both the words he says and the paintings he creates, Sebastian’s path to art is an inspiring example of an interdisciplinary approach to life.
He began his journey to art studying molecular biology at Drexel University. Graduating from there with a BS in biological sciences, he began working at the National Center for Biological Sciences in a lab that studied the cell membrane.
“It took me some time to really find what it is I wanted to do. When I was in Philadelphia, I took a painting class at a community art center called Fleisher Art Memorial. And I remember when I was mixing paint on the palette, and then painting with it, I had this feeling that this is what had been missing from my life, but I hadn’t known because I hadn’t worked with oil paint before.”
This sparked a desire to take painting seriously, so Sebastian continued taking classes at Fleischer and then moved back to India, where he built the body of work that he used to apply to graduate school. During his master’s degree education at University of North Carolina, Greensboro, his practice shifted from observational to a more studio-based approach, focusing on invention and synthesis of ideas.
“That transition I remember being quite uncomfortable and difficult because I was always worried. What if I get the anatomy wrong of the figures? What if I get the lighting wrong? And then, I think, by the end of grad school I realized it doesn’t matter because the whole thing is made up,” he said. “The faculty members at UNC Greensboro gave me the space to experiment, be vulnerable, and to fail—and I failed often; there was a lot of experimentation and there were a lot of bad paintings before things got interesting. And I hope to create a similar environment for students here at COA—to allow them to experiment, take risks, and surprise me and themselves.”
Sebastian's science background undeniably influences his art, and he continually draws parallels between art and science. “The two fields do inform each other,” he said. “I think working in a research lab taught me how to accept failure as part of the process. If an experiment doesn’t work, you have to kind of troubleshoot and change a few things at a time. One of my professors from grad school put it in an interesting way; she talked about both painting and science being speculative processes. You set up these parameters, and then you investigate. You don’t really know where you’re going.”
This process of speculation, experimentation, and learning also applies to his pedagogy and methods of teaching painting. “I feel like I learn so much when I’m in the classroom, because when I’m by myself, maybe there are some formulae that you sort of use to start a composition, or to place forms, or to establish some of these relationships. In the classroom, it’s always nice because working with the students helps me think about why I make certain decisions. And I think in the classroom, especially in the concentrated 10-week term we have here, I think my priority is to make a lot of quick drawings and paintings, so that the students can think about the big picture, the larger organization of colors and forms,” he said.
His studio, located in the maze of the Arts and Sciences building, is spacious, and he plans on incorporating the space into his teaching. “My plan is to start working on my own paintings within this space. Because an important part of grad school for me was seeing my professor’s studio, how these paintings came together, so I think it’s useful for the students to see my studio, my workspace.”
In his free time, Sebastian said, he likes to watch movies and also enjoys reading. Mostly, though, he has plans to paint. When asked on how his art evolves during the creative process, he replied that it’s all about recognizing and making peace with the unknown. “Once a painting comes to this moment of transition, it could go in many, multiple directions. There’s no right or wrong way to do it. It could end up in a bunch of different ways.”
