According to Indian mythology, trees or vrikshas were the offspring of Anala who was married to the great sage Kashyapa.. They have a great significant role in our cultural landscape for they not only yield fruits but provide shade as well and cover and protect the earth’s surface and have come to assume over the years even a sacred role.

Bhaskar Rao’s leitmotif – “‘The Tree” has remained constant as part of his oeuvre in his career as a painter over the years. At a cursory glance at his body of work, though it may appear that he seems to be involved and articulating his ideas through his vision of a landscape, it is primarily the image of the tree which stands out – which he keeps returning to over the years.

Bhaskar Rao has painted and drawn trees in myriad mediums and yet everytime he has returned to it with a new vision. In black and white, sombre greys or bright primary colours, the tree stands out resplendently, a sentinal to remind us of the havoc we seem to cause on the sacred face of the earth in our pursuit of selfish interests.