The three artists in the exhibition – Bhaskar Rao Botcha, Ganapati Hegde and Manish Chavda – present diverse styles and modes of working, even while engaging with the common space of the natural world and identifying with various aspects of flora and fauna. Devoid of human figuration, the paintings invite pause and reflection, dwelling on individual observations and imaginations of place and landscape, and showcasing each one’s ability to transcend boundaries between internal and external worlds. To reference the poet Mary Oliver, in ‘Instructions for living a Life’ – Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it; they articulate in their own ways, the wonders that they have experienced in unspoken occurrences of nature, consciously and unconsciously signifying personal philosophies and beliefs.

The artists gently remind us of a shared environment that we are at a risk of losing through the onslaught of a fast, urbanised world and human recklessness. They also draw us towards acceptance of nature’s cycles, of death and birth, destruction and renewal. Again, in the words of Mary Oliver “...To live in this world/ you must be able to do three things: to love what is mortal, to hold it against your bones knowing your life depends on it; and, when the time comes to let it go, to let it go.” (In Blackwater Woods)