The Gardens I Carry

Title: The Gardens I Carry
Oil on Canvas | 24 × 48 inches
Nature has always felt like home to me. I grew up in India surrounded by tea gardens, where endless stretches of green were simply part of everyday life. I think that is where my instinct to notice plants, flowers, colour, and the small changes in a landscape first began.
 
After moving to Canada, my relationship with nature continued in a different setting. The forests, lakes, gardens, and changing seasons were unfamiliar at first, but over the past four years they became places of comfort and discovery. In many ways, nature became one of the things that connected my life in Canada to the place I grew up.
 
Between Two Gardens brings those two parts of my life together. The water lilies, layered leaves, deep blues, and flashes of pink are not meant to represent one specific place. Instead, they come from memories of greenery in India mixed with the landscapes I have come to love in Canada. It is a painting about carrying your roots with you, finding familiarity somewhere new, and realizing that home can exist in more than one landscape.