Olivia Fraser: Indian Summer: Exhibition at Cromwell Place, London

"I painted these works during the first lockdown in India, just as the summer heat was notching up into the early forties (degrees). As a Northern Scot, even after all these years in Delhi, I find extreme heat challenging, but when the amaltas trees (the Indian laburnum) burst into bloom in May, their golden boughs light up and lift the streets of Delhi out of their hot torpor"

"I watched the amaltas tree outside my studio window come into its sunshine bloom over the course of the weeks that I was painting this."

Amaltas is, like so many trees in India, associated with the sacred- in this case both with Krishna (his flute, in some Tamil texts, is said to be made from the long amaltas seed pod) and Shiva (the tree is thought to be an incarnation of Shiva with the showering blooms adorning his locks).

"I’M FASCINATED BY THE IDEA OF HARNESSING THE SENSES DURING MEDITATION. IN THIS PAINTING I’M DRAWING ON THAT IDEA WITH THE BEE AND THE FLOWER BECOME ONE AS IN BHRAMARI- WHICH IS A YOGIC ASANA INVOLVING THE SOUND OF A BEE:"

Slowly draw in air and perform Bhramarikumbaka,Exhale it very slowly and then the sound of the bee will arise.

On hearing the sound of a bee from within, lead the mind there.

Samadhi will occur, together with the bliss arising from the realisation,“I am that.

- Gheranda Samhita. c.1700

"You cannot travel on the path,” said the Buddha,

“unless you become the path itself.”