Anita Roy Chowdhury (1939 - 2017) was born into a distinguished family of elites in Kolkata. As a child she had shown her preference for art. She was a highly imaginative & surprisingly innovative child. After finishing school, she joined the Government College of Art & Craft, Calcutta. In class, she was fortunate to have Dhiraj Choudhury, Sunil Das, Jogen Chowdhury & Shyamasree Basu as her classmates who would become important artists of the 60's.

In college she was under Satyen Ghosal. Gopal Ghosh was her teacher in second year, who was very liberal to allow Anita to use colors freely. He may be called the pioneer to Anita in using watercolours.

She joined the Society of Contemporary Artists in 1959 & the group arranged her first solo exhibition in 1962. Since 1969 she became a member of 'Calcutta Painters' & participated in group shows & solo exhibitions in most metropolitan cities in India & abroad. Some of them being AIFACS, New Delhi in 1963; Academy of Fine Arts, Calcutta in 1964; Jehangir Art Gallery, Bombay in 1966; Sarala Art Centre, Madras in 1969 amongst others.

She is one of the pioneering artists not only for Bengal but also for India and abroad because of her brilliant work of indigenous form and application of colors. Gifted with an inner sense of music she encompasses that arena of mind where words and melody are fused with the visual symphony. Her paintings are nothing but the voice of nature. Every moment deserves transformations of life eternally, having life and death simultaneously. She has thus been able to maintain this within her creations.