It is your passion that helps propel you forward even when the journey to your destination is challenging. And, it is also the passion that leads a person from one path to another. For florist Sapana Kharel, her passion for flowers and her beauty made her an artist.
His artwork using Japanese techniques is currently on display titled Shilpanjali, at Nepal Art Council Baber Mahal, Kathmandu which is also his tribute to his late father and he wants to donate a certain part of the proceeds from the artworks for the treatment of kidney patients in memory of his father.
The career change
Sapana Kharel’s family used to work as florists in the 90s and it was from her childhood that she was amazed by the patterns and colors of the flowers. Also, after getting married, she went to Japan with her husband and lived there for 13 years. Her time in Japan made her love flowers more than ever.
There, she enrolled to learn more about flower design and obtained a diploma from the Nippon Flower Designers Association in 2010. She used to see artworks made by Japanese using oshibana techniques and chigiri-e while visiting various flower shops and exhibitions.
“I was fascinated by the simple-looking but carefully created artworks,” says Sapana Kharel, “Japan became a platform for me to learn this unique art form, and creating these artworks gives me satisfaction.”
Then, she took a few more classes to understand the artwork process and practiced on her own.
Unique Japanese techniques on display.
It is almost impossible to think of a painting without using paints or brushes. However, the Japanese techniques, oshibana and chigiri-e, allow you to create colorful works of art without using any colored media or brushes. In the exhibition, he created still lifes along with landscapes.
The works of art in the exhibition at first glance have an impression of watercolors. But when you look closer, they are not. The first section of his exhibition features artworks using chigiri-e.
It is a Japanese art form, in which the main technique uses torn, colored and handmade paper to create images that resemble a watercolor painting.
For example, in Flower and Coffee Cups, artist Sapana Kharel has created a beautiful bouquet of colorful flowers in a round vase and a pink ribbon is attached to the bottom. Then, two white teacups are placed on the right side of it.
The background color is a subtle blue and the softness and the play of shadows and lights in the composition can fool anyone that it is a watercolor painting.
“It takes a lot of time to create a piece of art using chigiri-e,” Kharel says, “My husband supports me and encourages me to do the work, but asks me not to work in front of him.”
The reason for this is that the work he creates is tedious and it takes him around two months to create a single piece of art.
Meanwhile, the second section of his exhibition features his artwork using oshibana. It is the art of using pressed flowers and other botanical materials to create a complete image from these natural elements. Such pressed flower art involves drying flower petals and leaves on a pressed flower to flatten and exclude light and moisture. These elements are then used to form a compositional artwork.
“It is my passion that helps me create. And it’s a form of meditation for me when I create my artworks,” says Kharel.
If you want to experience the complexity of simple and nice-looking works of art, visit the exhibition which continues until Tuesday.
