Kathmandu June 7: Her Majesty Queen Aishwarya Rajya Laxmi Devi Shah inaugurated an exhibition of paintings of Mrs. Gita Rajan at the Siddhartha Art Gallery here this morning. The paintings are of different mediums and surfaces including oil, water colour, gouache, acrylic, canvas, glass and fabric focussing on the changing moods of nature- landscapes, rivers, mountains, flowers and still life.

Her Majesty the Queen keenly observed the various paintings on display. Minister for Tourism, Civil Aviation and Culture Tarani Dutta Chataut, former prime minister Kirti Nidhi Bista, Ambassador of India to Nepal K.V Rajan and other distinguished persons were present on the occasion.

The works on display cover early paintings done in Paris when the artist had formal interaction with the Institut des Beau Arts. And, after the gap of 30 years, her ‘Images of Nepal’ and ‘Forays into the Abstract’- works of the past couple of months in Kathmandu.

Two large pencil works of ‘His Majesty King Birendra’ and ‘Her Majesty Queen Aishwarya’ were the centre piece of attraction among visitors while ‘Bhaktapur’, ‘Mt. Everest’, ‘Tengboche Monastery’, ‘Rath of Rato Machendranath’ and ‘View from Nagarkot’ charmed the guests.

Among the paintings in the ‘Forays into the Abstract’, abstruse paintings of ‘E.T’, ‘In Praise of Ganesh’ and ‘Still Life’ demonstrated the complexity of different shades with a wide usage of different modes of colours.

Mrs. Rajan has exhibited her paintings in various places including Paris, Washington D.C. and New Delhi. Asked about the person who inspired her to paint, artist Mrs. Rajan said that ‘it is a mystery’.