The 46-year-old Chaganlal’s arcadian art world, however, is marred by the rather formulaic and tempered approach. Ocean Rhapsody, an acrylic on board, offers an idyllic setting hemmed by a piano and a friendly red sofa overlooking the sea. There are a dozen figurative works as well, like the indigo sadhu clouded in an ascetic haze in Benares Dreams.

Pegged at prodigious prices, the boards begin at Rs 4.25 lakh and go up to Rs 24 lakh. “The prices have nothing to do with me. They are driven by market forces,” says Chaganlal, who doesn’t sell via the usual gallery route except when he worked with gallerist Ashish Nagpal, with whom he signed a two-year contract. Chaganlal, whose works spring from his rather uneventful life at his home in Alibaug where he has been living for the past 16 years, says, “I moved into the house after my divorce. Maybe that explains the absence of activity in the work.”

A part of the proceeds from the sale, organised by the NGO Khushii, would go towards its children, some of whom were at the exhibition.