In Nandan Purkayastha’s works, his training as a fashion designer is evident through the drapery, hairstyle of figures and the contours of birds and beasts in his work, whereas design elements suspended all over the pictorial plain sew the whole composition together. His theatrical works, on closer observation, reveal a varied range of human emotions that Nandan depicts in his works, including the recurring motif of the "mask," as for him "masks are used by different people for different things." A clown uses a mask to make people laugh, while some use it to hide their real emotions. "There is a mask for everyone."