Nepal is considered to be the jewel of the Himalayas, most famous for having half of Mount Everest within its borders (the other half being in Tibet). In history Nepal was one of the few countries to not be colonized, it was kind of a buffer zone between two of the global superpowers of the time which were China and the British Empire who were both jockeying for position in the Himalayas. Apparently Nepal is where the religion of Hinduism originated which the spread to parts of Asia. Now it is unfortunately one of the poorest countries in the world, its wealth comes primarily from agriculture and tourism including the famous mountains that people like to climb. Nepal people are well adapted to the high altitudes and specialists called 'sherpas' will haul gear and guide the tourists as they climb mountains. Everest in particular is the biggest, or should we say tallest, attraction for foreign tourists but there are plenty of other great mountains to climb and regions to trek.
The painting had to feature tall mountains of course, but I wanted to soften the composition by showing some of the lush greenery and flowers, marigolds in this instance, which are wild to the region. There is a similar landscape found in nearby Bhutan, which I captured in an earlier painting in the series. Its well past the halfway point, there are a lot more countries starting with N before moving on to O and P.
World Inspired Landscapes: Nepal, watercolour 9 x 6" watercolour paper, June 2024
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