The making of art is a process that begins with a sensitive perception, an emotive response, followed by an intellectual pulse, a thinking mind and a skilled hand. For Goutam Roy, the paintings that he creates are a manifestation of the inner turmoil caused by this process. The turmoil has its roots in societal interactions, reflecting the dissonance between accepted social patterns and his perceptions. His growing sense of alienation in a superficial society labouring under socio-economic constraints, and his discernment of the pathetic release that nostalgia offers, seeps into his art. The figures in his images represent a large mosaic of human characters, characters that have been imbued with a certain dignity and idealism.

His work shows an underlying thread of consistent experimentation, as if evolving a form that would forge even closer to the mind with its complex perceptions, and the associated visual representation of it. His work transforms from figurative to abstract, where geometry reigns supreme, carrying symbolic meaning that is codified in the delineation. From a strict structure, the picture plane again becomes a free-flowing space with floating forms emanating from the subconscious. Having grown up within the artistically rich confines of Bankura and Bishnupur, it was only natural that painting became his medium of expression. Goutam studied art at the Kala- Bhavana, Visva Bharati, the university founded by Rabindranath Tagore in Santiniketan, Bengal.