Return to Eden: New Botanical Contact Paintings | Dharshi

 I've been painting goddesses for some months, using botanical contact painting: eco-printed petals, bark and leaves, and some pieces with rose hips, beach clay and acacia gum, because store-bought paint felt like a betrayal of what I was trying to say.

These goddesses whisper: Return to nature. Return to feminine wisdom. Remember you were perfect all along.

But here's what I didn't realise until recently:

I wasn't just painting about returning to Eden. I was being led there.

Five Years of Gardening Each Other's Courage

Five years ago, I met a young woman who would change my entire understanding of what success looks like.

Lolita (seen below, right to me), who owns Mystik River Gallery, an immigrant to Australia like myself, but from Ukraine. We met on Instagram way back in 2020 lockdowns in an effort to support each other's dreams, and we showed up for each other's galleries. Celebrated each other's brave choices. No scorekeeping. Just genuine belief.

Then came Russian-born Lena (seen below, right to Lena), the inspired resident curator at Mystik River Gallery, who sees things in my work I sometimes miss. Who honours vision instead of imposing it.

For the past five years, we weren't networking. We were gardening.

Planting seeds of support. Watering each other's courage. Believing in blooms we couldn't yet see.

And then, the invitation:

"Bring your goddesses to Mystik River."

Just like that, Eden wasn't just something I painted anymore. It was something I got to walk into.

A gallery offering space and a curator offering vision. All because we'd spent five years lifting each other.

Bright Star

Eden

Inside my solo show Return to Eden were:

• Goddesses painted with earth to honour women who are earth

• My 'Bright Star' painting (shown above) that took years to learn how to create

• A piece literally called Eden (I painted it before I knew I'd arrive here)

• Two brand new works in oils as well as more unreproduceable and 'never seen before' brand new eco-print paintings

• Curves that create worlds

• Bodies that need no apology

• Women who are salt of the earth and bright stars simultaneously

But more than that, it represented the following:

We rise by lifting each other. Gardens grow better together. Collaboration isn't compromise. It's how we bloom.