These paintings were made in 2013, as a tribute to all the felled trees of Bangalore.

Painted from my deep relationship with the trees and spaces, and as I have connected to them from my childhood to now, this is really an art-memoir of sorts. It was painted quite cathartically for some of them have been shamefully put down for the metro and other urban development projects, while some still stand tall and magnificent... at large of course, tonnes of them have been razed down over unsustainable projects - road widening, fly overs, metro and such and these also speak for them all. Here's to all the lakhs of trees they have razed down in the name of urban development... In here is the digital art print (that you can buy) along with a brief of which tree model I have used for the painting.

These have all been painted with watercolours on A4 cartridge from my memory of these trees. Originals are not being sold.

Each painting is available as digital art prints of A3 size and costs Rs.1000 per print + Shipping Costs. DM me if you're interested to buy any print.

Reference: Kartikeyan. S., Discover Avenue Trees (A Pocket Guide). 2014, Ecoedu Consultants Pvt.Ltd.

Acknowledgement:

Thanks to, Chinmayee Dutta, Soumya Suryanarayana, Pooja Kaul Basu, Chinar Shah, Neelima Prasanna Arya, Sowmya Reddy, Gowthaman Ranganathan, Du. Saraswathi, Sujju Akka, Madhuvanthi Mohan, Reshma Pais, Dr Sandhya Ravi, Mrs Yvonne Thomas, Deepika Talwar, Dr Vanaja Nair and Deepak Srinivasan for their valuable feedback, help and support through this process. Ponni Arasu, Kani Thangaraj, Dharini Parthasarathy and Tony Das for just being there and listening to my rants! And all other friends and family.

I am an ecologist/conservation biologist from Bangalore, I paint and sketch (sporadically) and am into photography as well. Animals, trees, nature and people who love them are my soul search, and I mostly find solace in all of them. I hope to be able to use ecological art to reach out to more people and encourage them to take a stand for their environment in what ever little way they can. :)

Fir Trees

These painted trees are just symbolic of them all... I am particularly thinking of the ones at Rahat Bagh, Old Madras Road.

Origin: North and Central America, Europe, Asia and North Africa.

Flowering Season: Non-flowering evergreen trees.

Golden Shower Trees

Jeevan Bhima Nagar was full of them, where we grew-up through my later childhood. None of them are around today, unfortunately... Origin: India, Burma and Sri Lanka.

Flowering Season: February to March.

Wet Evergreen Forests

Camping in the forests of the Western Ghats, I have realised how fragile and powerful nature is at the same time... And the best way to enjoy nature, is knowing you can make a difference, even if it is just in your own backyard or street...

Gulmohar (May Flower)

These are ones on CV Raman Nagar Main Road, they have all been felled for "some kind of road development work". That's the whole route of nearly 35- 40 trees altogether... We cycled on these roads as kids, realising their value even more... they're just beautiful routes and spaces... Sadly none of them exist anymore... Origin: Madagascar

Flowering Season: March to May.

Yellow Tabebuia (Yellow Trumpet, Yellow Trumpetbush, Golden Bell)

This is a portrait from the two trees at NGEF main road entrance on Old Madras Road. These trees have now been razed down over office building constructions. Their presence brought life to the whole of Old Madras Road and NGEF crossing.

Origin: Tropical Americas/Brazil

Flowering Season: February to April.

Pink Pouis (Tabebuia Rosea)

This portrait is of the one near 17th main, Indiranagar. Also, a monoecious/bisexual tree. I found solace in this tree in the recent past years. It still stands tall looking over the sewage that needs to be treated!

Origin: Mexico, Venezuela and Ecuador.

Flowering Season: February and March.

Jacaranda

This is one in DRDO Ist Phase, CV Raman Nagar... Painted from a different angle, I've bonded with this tree since my childhood. Every time I pass by, I ritualistically see the jacaranda flowers during the season and attain a sense of peace and serenity. Fortunately, it still stands there today...

Origin: Brazil.

Flowering Season: February to March.

Pink Tabebuia (pink trumpet)

This tree is the one on Old Airport- Air Force Hospital Road, as I passed by once disturbed by all the tree felling within the city, I saw this gorgeous tree, standing all by itself and making it's mark clear (I wanted to photograph it, but painted it instead)... I was very worried it might be felled off in the name of development, but it still stands tall there along with the others on that main road seemingly safe from all the atrocities... Origin: Paraguay and Argentine

Flowering Season: January and February

Alpine Forest

 A portrait of the Alpine Forests -  The Himalayas

The African Tulip

This monoecious or bisexual tree stands tall outside my place in Indiranagar... Having grown so beautifully over the last fifteen years or so, the whole street has new light to it... We were being bothered to raze it down, chop off its branches for the electric cables, leaf litter and compound wall and whatever else not, but have stood our ground that it's going nowhere and even with mutilating it, have taken a stand on it, that it's only going to be trimmed as necessary... Hopefully, everybody recognizes more of their life giving presence, and work more towards cherishing them rather than tug-a-warring over putting them down or chopping off their branches... 

Origin : Africa

Flowering Season: August and December