ABOUT
Hoo
I'm Dharshi de Silva. My practice begins in the garden I've cultivated for ten years on the Mornington Peninsula, and moves onto canvas through a process I call botanical contact painting: pressing plant matter directly into cloth, developing the impressions with earth pigment, natural dye, and pastel.
The work is not botanical illustration. It's an inquiry into time, contact, and impermanence, ancestral and imaginative narratives that connect family, identity, and the natural world. Each piece records something that cannot be repeated: a specific plant, a specific pressure, a specific moment of contact between living material and surface.
Hoo Gallery shows this work across two spaces: a studio and garden gallery in Mount Eliza, and a gallery in Richmond, Melbourne.
To read more about my art process in creating botanical contact paintings, please subscribe to my newsletter on my blog here.
I welcome anyone interested in viewing my art to contact me directly here.
Philosophy and Vision
My background in education and fashion design shapes how I approach botanical art: with structure, discipline, and an instinct for form. The work carries symbolic depth alongside moments of levity, rooted in a philosophy of slow living and mindful creation. Many pieces carry the quiet inscription "All is Well," an invitation to find peace in the present moment, and to seek light even in difficult times.
My work explores identity, family, and connection to nature, drawing on both ancestral memory and imagined narrative. These are not botanical studies. They are explorations of life, death, renewal, and the deep, ongoing relationship between people and the natural world.
Interested in hearing more about my process, philosophy and place? Subscribe to my blog here!