Nature takes centre stage in watercolourist Swati Chandak Sharma’s paintings. There is birth and decay. After the pandemic had subsided in the city, Sharma started noticing the recklessness with which pruning processes were being carried out in her neighbourhood near Aarey forest. “There was a mango tree in my neighbourhood which was pruned so badly, it died. The nests had fallen down; nobody looked after it,” she recalls. She believes that there is a general lack of knowledge among the authorities who take on the task. Sometimes, the tools they carry are wrong; and on other occasions, proper techniques are lacking. “This was also when I started noticing a lot of birds in the trees and slowly educated myself. I’d use Google Lens to find out their names.” She kept a small diary to document what she called ‘Birds of my Neighbourhood’.

The artworks depict flowering plants around Aarey forest. Pic Courtesy/Wikimedia Commons