About me
Statement
For decades, I have been painting Botanical Art as my passion for art and its scientific aspects as well. Technical perfection and scientific accuracy is required in order to paint such artworks. Meeting new challenges in making live paintings, scientific illustrations from dead materials had always been a love for Art and Flora.
For ages, these abundant experiences in the beauty and truth of this natural world made me enlighten the inner state of mind more than what exactly flowers look like. The series on Petals, Placid nuances, Assimilation of Flora and other series of different forms of my recent artworks best describes the time, moment and space born from the organic world of the elements that cannot be seen visibly but felt, sensed. Absorption and assimilation of these elements are the living being’s truth phenomenon. Creating such pieces of work, my paintings come from my deep intuition, from the concepts and the experiences of and from the natural world around me.
Neera Joshi Biography
Born in a family of artists, Neera Joshi Pradhan (M.Sc. Botany) is a leading Artist and Botanical illustrator in Nepal. Her approach of combining art and science first began with “Flora from Kathmandu Valley” 1999, the first Botanical Art Exhibition in Nepal and still continues her passion for art and love for nature.
She was trained as a Botanical illustrator in Marie Selby Botanical Garden, FL USA 2002, and attended Botanical Art Classes, Royal Botanical Garden of Edinburgh, UK 2007. She has been exhibiting her art works in various parts of the globe, “International Juried Botanical Art Exhibition, 2004” USA, “BISCOT 2007” UK. She was invited as a only Nepalese Botanical artist- “Flora of Nepal” Exhibition a 200 – year connection -as a part of Nepal Britain celebration, 2016. Other international exhibition includes 19th International Botanical Congress, China 2017, Shanghai Art collection Museum, China 2019.Awarded at Global Artist Movement - Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Japan 2019. Wuhan International Botanical Art Online Exhibition, Wuhan China and “Florilegium: A Gathering of Flowers” RBGE, Edinburgh 2020. She is also invited as a participating Artist in forthcoming Florence Biennale, Italy 2021.
She has contributed to research and conservation of Nepalese flora including ”Flora of Nepal” Vol. III with several botanical line drawings for scientific articles. Contributing as a resource person and a facilitator in national and international Botanical Art /illustration workshops for Flora writers to different levels of students for the past many years. Neera has developed a basic course for advanced level of scientific drawings for taxonomists/students of Masters in Botany which is included in a book “Taxonomic tools for Flora writers” (Published by TU /Government of Nepal). It is taught as a curriculum reference for the first time in Nepal since 2015. Currently, she teaches courses on Botanical Art and illustration at different levels to aspiring budding artists and science students at her studio, the school of Botanical Art, Studio Petals in her home country Nepal.
Besides her expertise in academic Scientific Botanical Art, and beyond the subject matter , Neera unfolds the spiritual aspect of creativity that depicts the truthful essence of the organic world of the flora. Neera has also been sharing her experiences inspired from nature in a very unique form of contemporary art in Nepal. This new form is a personal style of abstraction and senses a better world to share and live in harmony. She uses watercolor and acrylic paints as her best medium. Recently she was invited to participate the XIII Florence Biennale 2021 and successfully attended the event in person. She also received a Special commendation President Prize for the collection presented at the Biennale.
Currently, She works and lives in Kathmandu.
Profile
Date of Birth: 1967, Daughter of Doyen of Nepali Art/Painter RN Joshi (1938-88).Education: MSc. Botany, 1995, Tribhuwan University, Nepal.
Training on Botanical art/ illustration:
- 2002 Marie Selby Botanical Garden, FL USA.
- 2007 Botanical Art Classes, Royal Botanical Garden of Edinburgh, Scotland.
Awards
- Magnus Laurentius Medices Medal
- Special Commendations from the President, Contemporary Art and Design, XIII Florence Biennale 2021, Florence, Italy
- Global Artist Movement City Council Chairperson’s Prize Award
- Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Nagoya, Japan 2019
- Bhadra Kumari Ghale Lalitkala Puraskar
- Botanical Painting, Nepal, 2069 BS (2013 AD)
- Kala Jaagaran Samman
- Nepal Academy of Fine Arts, 2012.
- Bronze Medal, Botanical Images Scotia
- Gardening Scotland, UK 2007
Bibliography
- 2019"Wild flowers of Ghyachok , VDC, Gorkha district Nepal", 2019Pleione 13(1): 41 - 54. 2019. ISSN: 0973-9467 © East Himalayan Society for Spermatophyte Taxonomy Doi:10.26679/Pleione.13.1.2019.041-054
- 2015Botanical IllustrationsTaxonomic tools and Flora writing, Published by Dept of Plant Resources, Ministry of Forests and soil conservation, Central Dept of Botany, Kathmandu Nepal
- 2010An Abstract/PosterBotanical Art and Illustrations: Visual Communication in the Service of Plant Science. International Conference for Biodiversity, Livelihood and Climate Change in the Himalayas (ICBLCC ) Central Dept. of Botany, TU Kathmandu Nepal.
- 2008Introducing Application of Scientific Botanical Art and Illustration in Sorbus L. (Rosaceae)An article in 4th National Conference of Science and Technology, RONAST Nepal
Botanical painting and line drawings
- 2015Line Drawings for a new species Ziziphus budhensis KR. Bhattarai & PathakIndian Journal of Plant Sciences ISSN: 2319-3824(Online) An Open Access, Online International Journal Available 2015 Vol.4 (2) April -June, pp.71-77/ Bhattarai and Pathak
- 2011Flora of NepalWatson M.et al. Flora of Nepal, Vol. III. Royal Botanic Garden of Edinburgh, Scotland, 2011. Frontispiece, pg 317, 321
