Born in Kolkata in 1959, he studied at the Indian College of Art & Draughtsmanship, Kolkata. At his art college, he was taught by Gopal Sanyal, who was his great support. However, the artists who influenced and guided him the most were Bikash Bhattacharya and much later, Shyamal Dutta Ray. His fondness for painting landscapes has resulted in some magnificent and bold creations.

Pradip Maitra’s powerful strokes in blacks, olive greens, rusts and many such colours, captures the past to combine with the present and create contemporary modern art. He is a master in both watercolour & oil. He is a modernist artist, trapped in a post-modernist age. Old historical monuments and figurines, steam engines, dilapidated buildings, present-day situations, are some of the many themes that have found a place in his paintings, in his abstract style.

His works can be found in the permanent collections of the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi; Governor’s House, Orissa; Reliance Industries Ltd, Mumbai; Hyderabad Museum, Hyderabad and Lancashire University, the UK.