Adams, Nilavan ( - )

Nilavan Adams left Thailand in 1974 to study in Australia.

To her family's disappointment, she did not return home as planned. Instead, Nilavan joined the Australian Public Service (APS) in 1978 and worked there until 2001. She started to paint as a hobby in 1978, concentrating mainly on landscapes, portraiture and still life in oil, acrylics and pastels.

In 2001, Nilavan left the APS to accompany her husband who was working overseas. She taught herself to paint exotic flowers with watercolours during her long stays in hotels and immediately fell in love with the medium. Nilavan later enrolled in watercolour technique classes al the Australian National University's School of Arts. By 2004, she had developed a passion for painting flowers and decided to focus on botanical painting. Nilavan's style of painting involves the application of dry brush techniques which create finely detailed paintings that display a velvety appearance. She loves to explore new styles of painting and a variety of media and is currently [2018] focusing on painting on vellum (calf skin).

She is regularly invited to teach botanical art for various institutions and is currently a teaching member of the newly established NatureArt Lab, the natural history art school in Canberra.

Source: Extracted from: 'Flora of Australia - A Botanical Art Worldwide Exhibition', published by the Botanical Art Society of Australia, Canberra, May 2018
Portrait Photo: Extracted from: Friends of ANBG website, 2014, https://www.friendsanbg.org.au/node/463