Born 1970

B.A. Fine Arts College, Kathmandu

Erina's paintings have been undergoing a metamorphosis over the years. A decade ago, her paintings bore the hallmark of Prashanta Shrestha's legacy. During this period the rural life of the Newar community featured in her works. A murky palette of green and blue seemed to envelop her paintings and created an atmosphere of oppressive gloom. In the last five years, Erina's imagery has been undergoing a subtle but definite change which is very much in keeping with the events in her personal life.

In 2002 Erina married her colleague and fellow artist Asha Dangol. This union marked the beginning of a celebration of the female form in her work. Though the blue and green hues have remained, rapturous women emerged in Erina's canvasses, celebrating their sensuality in discreet isolation.

In her most recent work, Erina has finally bid adieu to her old color palette and found a new motif to express her innermost expressions. The leaf is used to link or root the woman in nature. In some of her paintings a latticework of leaves creates a zenana-like situation where the sensual female form is hidden from public view. In others, a solitary woman can be seen in a tangle of trees or a mosaic of leaves. None of Erina’s women look directly at the viewer – the woman that she paints may well be a reflection of her own self: shy, pensive, earthy, and sensual looking outward to nature for inspiration … a woman yearning to be released from the mundane rituals of day-to-day living and more at ease with nature than in the urban incarceration of Kathmandu city.

Erina's latest works, made in Manang, reflect a confidence and mastery that surpasses her early works and I am confident that her forays into foreign regions like Manang will yield exciting works when the artist can establish direct communion with nature.

(Sangeeta Thapa, SIDDHARTA GALLERY, Kathmandu)