Welcome to this week’s Gators Eye artist feature! Each week, we highlight a different student artist and their unique and beautiful work. For today, that artist is junior Saniya Bhatia. 

Saniya was born and raised here in North Carolina. She loves experiencing and being involved in all forms of art, not just sketching or painting. “I was a part of the school musical last year, I’m in Chorus, and I do visual arts at Triangle Arts School,” she explains. She also loves spending time with her friends and trying new things with them, such as food!

“I’ve been an artist ever since preschool,” says Saniya. “I started with sketching and all I used to do was watch Youtube drawing videos and copy them.” In the years since then, she’s moved far past imitating Youtube artists. Now, she enjoys painting, sketching, sculpting, and occasionally even sewing. 

Although Saniya’s got talent and skills in plenty of art mediums, both visual and performing, she still has her preference in how to create. “My preferred mediums are probably oil or acrylic painting, and my favorite subject to do are figures,” she says. Her paintings are stunning–her use of vibrant colors, textured brush strokes, and smooth shading techniques make her art gorgeous and uniquely her own. Her understanding of light and perspective shows with her years of practice. 

Saniya’s main words of wisdom for other artists is to keep going. “The best advice I could give is to not give up. You might surprise yourself!” She says. Her resilience and perseverance likely shaped her and her art into what they are today. We can’t wait to see what she’ll create next! 

Thank you to Saniya Bhatia for her interview! If you would like to recommend yourself or a student for our artist spotlight, please email [email protected]!

Gallery • 4 Photos

Saniya uses complementary colors in this calming landscape.