A total of 212 artworks created by artists from 37 different countries are currently on display at the International Watercolor Festival, currently ongoing at Nepal Art Council, in the Capital. Depicting the unique cultures and lifestyles of the countries, the watercolour artworks also represent the contemporary art trajectory of the respective countries. This is the first occasion that the fest, organised by International Watercolor Society Nepal Chapter, is being held in Nepal.

The exhibition boasts, mostly, landscapes and portraits based on motifs ranging from daily life, religion, cosmos, the erotic, capitalism, and the Zen.

Most of the work by Nepali artists featured in the exhibit draw their inspiration from Nepali lifestyle and landscapes, in the likes of DR Ghimire’s Nuwakot Durbar, Keshav Raj Khanal’s Rani Mahal or Ratna Kaji Shrestha’s Street of Kathmandu, which is a depiction of a bustling galli in Asan; but there are others like Ragini Upadhyay’s Nature Speaks and Devendra Thumkeli’s Price @ Head that embrace different themes.

Upadhyay’s Nature Speaks is primarily a depiction of a casual Peepal tree, with many motifs surrounding it. Strikingly, the root of the tree is made of a few pairs of female feet, delicate, and with red smears around them; all the way up, standing upright in nude, the women carry with their hands the burden of the roof of the tree, while their legs are circled by red wires.

Thumkeli’s work Price @ Head is based on the most political theme in the exhibit—capitalism. The work has a human body sleeping looking up, around his body are mushrooms sprouting and, remarkably, the human body has his head held in his hands. The work, in artist Thumkeli’s own words, seeks to examine the workings of a world beset by capitalism, where a man puts his own head, and hence his mores and values, on sale.

The Indonesian artist Maya Basoeki’s Unconditional Love is inundated by a subdued yellow, and has a lady praying, while some radiation passes through the side of her face. The piece, plain and minimal in its texture, exudes a Zen-like exuberance.

The festival will continue through November 10.