Nature plays a pivotal role in Rithika's works and is emphasized by the use of organic shapes and non saturated colours. Her paintings are made using a combination of watercolour and collage elements, drawing on 17th century botanical drawings and folk art, to create a body of work that is visually linked to our collective pasts.

"When Merchant’s work moves away from a narrative telling, it finds a sharp austerity: namely with high-contrast collage works that sit like well-crafted sentences, over which the artist has exercised a keen editorial judgement. The collage works rest in subtle manoeuvres such as the tightly packed colouration of the small fragments of paper that come together to form the image. Merchant treats the fragments of paper she uses with a dappling, gentle wash."

From the essay, 'Where the water takes us' written by Skye Arundhati Thomas, 2017