Two paintings you saw before anyone else did

There are two paintings I haven't properly told you about. Mother Earth and Spirited Away.

They came out of a body of work I called Mother, and if you've seen them, you'll know they sit differently to the rest of my work. Deeper. Heavier in tone. That wasn't a decision I made at the easel.

That year, some people I loved felt further away than usual. Others, I was spending more time with, and seeing in a different light. Both at once.

I wasn't trying to paint any of that. But it came through anyway, in the tone.

The process itself hadn't changed. Plants from my own garden, pressed onto canvas through tannin, heat, steam and pressure, then developed by hand with earth pigment and soft pastel. What did change was the colour. I started dyeing with avocado skins that year, a new layer in the process, and it's what gave this collection its deep, bruised palette. The plant leaves its mark on the cloth. The year left its mark on the work. Same way. Permanent.

Spirited Away and Mother Earth both sold to a Melbourne collector before it was ever exhibited. Before it touched a gallery wall, before the public ever saw it, it went out in an email to this list. A collector saw it here and bought it straight off my studio wall.

That's the part I wanted you to know. This list sees the work first. Before the gallery, before Instagram, before anyone else. That's not a marketing line, it's just what happened with this piece, and it's how I plan to keep doing it.

💙 Dharshi

Mother Earth, 190 x 121 cm. Botanical contact painting on canvas. Crepe myrtle flowers, bidens flowers, tansy flowers and feijoa leaves pressed directly onto canvas through tannin, heat, steam and pressure, developed by hand with an avocado dye and soft pastel. Part of the Mother series. A vanitas painting concerned with contact, trace and impermanence rather than botanical depiction.

Spirited Away, 98 x 70 cm. Botanical contact painting on canvas. Alder cone and avocado dye with feijoa leaves pressed directly onto canvas through tannin, heat, steam and pressure, developed by hand with soft pastel. Part of the Mother series. A vanitas painting concerned with contact, trace and impermanence rather than botanical depiction.