Garden of the Gods 1

A recent visit to the remote and ecologically fragile Mishmi Hills in Arunachal Pradesh, yielded the first in my new series of paintings, The Garden of the Gods. The series is inspired by Frank Kingdon-Ward, who was one of the earliest explorers of these remote mountains in a quest for finding new species. I am hoping that this initial painting, which hardly captures the many different birds and the flora diversity found in the lower hills, will lead to a series that will continue to finally comprise all the 290 species that have been recorded here. The plants depicted include the duabanga grandiflora, a native tree, of the North East, and the non-native merremia tuberosa, which has made incursions thanks to excavations and road building activities. With such an extraordinary diversity of avian fauna, the most striking birds have been included, for instance yuhinas, white hooded babblers, black breasted sunbirds and the red headed trogon, besides the beautiful greater neck laced laughing thrush and silver eared mesias.

Date: 8 July 2018
Medium: Painting (acrylic on canvas)
Size: 4.5 * 5.5 feet
Status: commissioned