Blooming from France to Rajasthan with Botanical Art
A walk into a room at Kaner feels like you have entered a floral art gallery, laced with the fragrances and flavours of the desert. Every room wears a different hue, texture and scent and is designed with local flowers as inspiration. Kaner Retreat is the first boutique hotel to commission desert botanical art to local artists.
When guests enter their room, they might walk into a pink palette of the Kaner, or the soft beige textures of the 'Bui 'or desert cotton, or the bright orange mood of the 'Hazara' or marigold. In every room the flower becomes the muse. The inspiration for botanical art came all the way from France, from none other than Pierre-Joseph Redouté, often referred to as the “Rembrandt of botanical art”. Sapna’s fascination with botanical art began when she saw his work in the art galleries abroad and realized that there was hardly any art dedicated to the desert flora unlike tropical flowers. She was told by artists that the desert plants were considered invisible, with small shrubs, non-descript flowers and hardly any leaves. But she felt that that there was poetry in the thorny plants of the Thar Desert that had to be showcased to the world through art. She commissioned two artists - Malini Saigal , who had worked on botanical illustrations and Madan Meena, who focuses on a contemporary take on traditional miniature paintings. The walls now burst into colours as seasons unfold through the decor. Paintings and sketches depict the beauty of the flowers. Even the furnishings wear the shades of the flowers. Every room has wild flower arrangements and the ornamental flowers make the private courtyards fragrant.
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Kaner Retreat - India’s first desert botanical resort