Rebecca Solnit once wrote about trees as witnesses that alter the scale through which time is understood. The first thing that strikes the viewer in Field Notes (On the Afterlife of Trees) is restraint. They operate as physical records of time, their surfaces marked by the pressures of wind, decay and slow transformation. During his years at Kala Bhavana in Santiniketan, and later during his Master’s studies in Baroda, drawing and photography became tools for studying the behaviour of natural forms. In Field Notes, the act of painting becomes a form of attention extended over time, allowing fragments of the natural world to hold the viewer’s gaze long enough for their presence to be fully felt.

Source: The Telegraph March 14, 2026 04:59 UTC