In the Eye of The Beholder

What makes a piece of art beautiful? Few questions are simultaneously so easy and yet so difficult to answer. Whether an innovative new process or adherence to the legacies of the masters, true beauty in art is as common as it is impossible to pin down. Suchitra Bhosle and Karen Davis are two Artists featured in The Secret Garden Art Novel, with vastly differing ways of creating beauty.

Suchitra Bhosle is an impressionist artist who draws from 20th-century naturalism. If these words mean little to you, let’s add some context. Impressionism and Naturalism emerged in the 1800s. Naturalism attempted to paint the world as it truly was, rather than the heavily stylized landscapes popular at the time. Similarly, Impressionism strived to paint the world as it appeared but believed this could only be done through complete and total spontaneity–hence the short, rapid brush strokes of artists like John Singer Sargent.

We see these influences play out in Suchitra’s work, yet she does not hold back from inserting modern sensibilities. In The Secret Garden collection, she paints the diversity experienced by the modern child, Mary as African American, Colin as Caucasian, and Dickon as Indian. By using techniques of old to capture contemporary values, Suchitra’s work exhibits both historic legacy and a refreshing vitality.

Karen Davis finds beauty in the mystery and intricacies of the natural world. Rather than trying to capture it in paint, she turns to a much more elaborate and planned process of sculpting tole botanicals, designed from the plants in her garden. Tole is enameled or lacquered metalware, often with gilt decoration that was especially popular in the 18th century for adorning trays and lamps. Karen uses copper washes and enamel paints to create her intricate, hand-crafted sculptures before mounting them to various baseboards. Her ability to use a hard, inflexible material such as metal to create something as organic and delicate as flowers speaks to her skill.

We sat down with Karen and Suchitra, who spoke about their practice, beauty in art, and what The Secret Garden means to them.

‍

In the same way Karen sources her home-grown plants to inform her designs, Suchitra focuses on people to inspire her portraits. “I’ve always been drawn to faces, people, and emotions,” she says. “Something about people’s expressions and the feeling it evokes. It could be a woman seated somewhere, it could be in a magazine, it could be a gesture. I look for the things people do that are artistic, that have an elegance, a natural form and rhythm. I look for these rhythms a lot in life. If someone is really artistically inclined in the way they speak or dress, what they’re saying in the context of the conversation, that is where I find expression and emotion.”

‍

For Karen, the novel’s central themes of healing and growth were especially resonant. In the novel, Archibald Craven falls into a deep depression after the death of his wife. For a decade, he neglects his son Colin, and withdraws from the world, consumed by his pain. It is Colin, Mary, and Dickon who ultimately revive and awaken him. “A lot of what I pulled from The Secret Garden was about healing,” Karen says. “What Colin’s father went through with his depression and pulling out of it. I had depression after my second child was born so I felt very sympathetic to that character. Death is necessary to have life. You see that with plants and flowers. You need a harsh winter in order to have bulbs grow. Yes, there is struggle but there is going to be beauty out of that.”

‍

We are endlessly grateful Suchitra and Karen chose to share theirs with us.

To see more of Karen Davis’ and Suchitra Bhosle’s Art visit the Bond & Grace website and to hear our conversation in full, listen to Art Talk on Spotify.