Artist Sarita Dangol has been painting trees-and only trees-ever since she cares to remember. She explains: "What that would fascinate me when I first attempted landscapes were trees as a whole and in part: bent and fallen, stems that are coarse and knotted, branches crisscrossing and leaping out, and leaves drooping and withered."

Little surprise then, that Sarita's sixth solo exhibition, 'Creation and Creations' concentrates on trees. However, although her subject remains constant, her style of presentation has never been more different. Sarita has veered into a style that leans on expressionism with her old palette of blue and green giving way to warmer hues.

Her earlier work portrayed trees conventionally in light and shade as a nod to her formal art education. 'Defining Trees' in 2000 showed the trunks in her paintings beginning to grow branches that swirl and swarm up and down. 'Trees and Trails' in 2002 was, more or less, an extension of the preceding style but showed more maturity in the way she handled colour and created depth. Since then she has tried to break away from traditional conventions and her later work depicting tree trunks follow no prescribed logic and are a riot of colours.

The poet Manjul, who was inspired by Sarita's work, wrote:

When the Earth wants
to meet the Heavens
it climbs up stepping on the branches of trees.

When the Heavens want
to meet the Earth
they descend stepping on the branches of trees.

This is the way they help,
the trees
introduce the sky and the land

Sitting beneath a tree,
you can send the Earth up
or invite the Heavens down

but
you must have the language with which to talk to them (the trees can teach you that).

(Ajit Baral and Manjul's poem translated by Maya Watson.)

'Creation and Creations' by Sarita Dangol is on exhibition at NAFA, Naxal till 28 November.