Art Doesn’t Need to Be Perfect to Be Meaningful |Paula Borsetti, Neha Nandedkar, and Tatjana Mihailova

No two journeys in art are the same, but they often share a common heartbeat: the desire to express, heal, and connect perfectly. In this feature, three remarkable women artists—Paula Borsetti, Neha Nandedkar, and Tatjana Mihailova—open up about their creative paths, revealing how personal experiences, emotional depth, and a deep love for colour and nature have shaped their work.

Each artist brings a unique lens: Paula’s paintings are layered with memories of love, loss, and resilience; Neha’s work dances with bold colours and the calming presence of nature; and Tatjana’s art bridges the emotional power of colour with the logic of science. What ties them together is their unwavering commitment to authenticity, their openness to vulnerability, and the courage to create beauty from their most personal moments.

Through their stories, we’ve learned how art can be more than a practice—it can be a companion through grief, a voice for inner thoughts, and a powerful tool for self-discovery. These women show us that creativity is not just about what we make with our hands, but what we reveal from the heart. So grab a cup of tea, take a breath, and dive into the soulful journeys of three women who remind us why art matters.

What Inspires a Lifelong Love for Art?

For one of these artists, it began in a high school studio filled with the smell of paint and the sound of possibilities. “I wasn’t the star student, but I knew art would be an integral part of my life,” she says. Growing up in a creative household, she remembers watching her father sketch endlessly, not for fame, but for understanding. His sense of curiosity left a lasting imprint that later blossomed into a 26-year teaching career where she inspired others to find their voice through art.

Meanwhile, another artist recalls a very different kind of spark: the garden of her childhood in India. “Creating from nature was my favourite thing to do,” she says. “It formed the foundation of my artistic journey.” Now living in London and balancing a career in lighting design and architecture, she creates abstract paintings and ceramics deeply informed by the natural world’s textures, colours, and rhythms.

And then there’s the artist whose obsession with sunsets turned into a lifetime fascination with colour psychology and the emotional resonance of hues. “I painted mostly in yellow and orange and hung my paintings proudly,” she remembers. Her academic journey—spanning architecture, art history, and a PhD centered on color—eventually led her to a practice combining scientific insight with expressive creativity.

I am dancing around the studio doing what I love while exploring, excavating and creating works that I am so excited about. Every day in the studio is like watching the tide come in and out. When it recedes nothing is the same. That is my daily practice.

To learn more about Paula, click on the links below.

How Do Life Experiences Shape Creative Expression?

Artists turn to their work to create beauty and make sense of life’s more profound questions. Personal loss became a wellspring of creativity for the painter whose abstract work draws from the New England coastline. One of her most moving series, PALS, was inspired by a close friend’s son who lost his battle with ALS. “I use his words as submerged layers in my paintings. They speak of strength, perseverance, and life,” she shares. Layering, scraping, and sanding become a metaphor for healing—each mark on the canvas a step forward in grief and recovery.

The London-based painter and ceramist also sees her art as a direct emotional outlet. “My brushstrokes are spontaneous, and every mark is like a doorway to another feeling or memory,” she explains. Whether painting or working with clay, her goal remains to capture the grace, charm, and fleeting wonder of nature and the everyday world.

And for the artist who merges science with painting, art is a vessel for exploring human behaviour. Colour tests, personality theory, and biographies of great artists like Yayoi Kusama and Vincent van Gogh influence her paintings. “I wanted to understand how their inner worlds shaped their use of colour,” she says. Through her vibrant palettes, she reveals the subconscious choices that define us—and how colour speaks a language we all understand, even if we can’t always translate it.

My paintings and ceramics interpret how I see the grace, charm, pleasure, and solace the surrounding environment offers.

To learn more about Neha, visit the links below.

When Art Becomes a Language of Healing and Hope

All three women share a deep commitment to their studio practice. One artist describes her creative flow as “dancing with the paint,” often working on several canvases, letting instinct guide her movements. She emphasises freedom to fail, explore, and yell or whisper on the canvas.

The ceramist and painter in London uses her studio as a sanctuary, a space where spontaneity is welcome and every texture tells a story. “I let nature guide me—changing seasons, light patterns, and even my garden inspire what I create,” she shares. Her approach to combining painting with ceramics adds a tactile dimension to her abstract storytelling.

The third artist treats her practice as a dialogue between academic knowledge and emotional intuition. Whether inspired by psychological research or the shifting colours of a sunset, she allows theory to deepen, not define, her expression. In doing so, she bridges the gap between science and soul.

Beyond technique and talent, these women artists embody resilience, introspection, and a deep desire to connect with others through their art. Their stories prove that creativity is not something separate from life—it is life. It’s how we process grief, remember the ones we’ve lost, honour the beauty around us, and discover who we are.

One artist reflects, “I am exploring real and perceived barriers that keep us from soaring. I’m finding ways to flip the conversation—from limitation to liberation.” Another believes her work opens portals to emotions often left unspoken. The third uses color as a mirror to human nature itself.

When I painted pictures about Artist’s as Yajoi Kusama, Henri Matisse, Salvador Dali, Marc Chagall, Rembrandt, Vincent Van Gogh and etc., I wanted to understand and visualize it, what kind of personality, what kind of character and temperament is behind the paintings and what determines the choices of artists‘ color palette.

To learn more about Tatjana, click on the links below.

Each artist paints or sculpts not just with tools but also with memory, emotion, and presence. They remind us that art is more than aesthetics—it is a way to understand ourselves and each other, a bridge between the inner and outside worlds.

Their stories are not just about women in the arts but about being human—vulnerable, curious, courageous. In their hands, loss transforms into healing, science into soul, and nature into poetry.

Whether you’re an artist yourself, an art lover, or someone simply seeking inspiration, may their journeys encourage you to trust your voice, embrace your unique story, and never stop creating.

Stay tuned to the Women in Arts Network for more stories amplifying diverse, powerful contemporary art voices. Visit our website and follow us on Instagram.