India has always fascinated me and it took me a while before I ventured forth to do my first Indian influenced painting. The Ajanta caves, in Aurangabad district of Maharashtra state, India, is one of the most fascinating places because of its antiquity and style of the paintings on the walls therein. In my painting, I wanted to juxtapose the ancient with the new. I took a series of photographs of houses on one trip to India when I also visited the Ajanta Caves. Both sets of images relate to the quotidian, i.e. what you see everyday. The modern houses in the streets of India in 2003 and the reproduction of the Ajanta paintings of ancient Indians going about their daily chores forms the background to this piece. I love the vibrant colours, the imaginative, individual modern house styles, and the unusual depiction of domestic scenes of 2nd century BCE to about 480 CE in these Buddhist World Heritage Site caves.