Sarada Man Shrestha’s In Quest of Water, a murky mixed media piece portraying a woman at a ढुङ्गे धारा stone spout done in earthy browns and greens, hangs close to a pencil sketch of Queen Aishwarya.
“The museum was created for present-day artist, they should be able to enjoy fame in their lifetime,” says Shakya. But some of the paintings span generations of artists. Indeed, four out of six paintings from Manik Man Chitrakar’s Buddha’s Life series are on display at the museum.
Three paintings hang on the Arya Tara Wall of the museum, two among them completed decades apart by Anandamuni Shakya, the Nepali pioneer of 3D sketches, in 1938 and his grandson Surendra Man Shakya, in 2017.
The third Arya Tara painting, Samundra Man Singh Shrestha’s oil on canvas, compared with Anandamuni Shakya’s mineral pigment on canvas serves as historical documentation of how the traditional Nepali art-form, and 3D art, has evolved.
Shrestha’s Green Tara is so detailed, the gold ornaments against her skin so intricately painted, that one almost expects to feel the ridges of gold and gemstones should they reach out and touch the painting.