MEENA HARDING (born 1946)

Meena Harding was born in Lahore before partition. Her parents, originally from Peshawar, had settled there for two generations. Her grandfather, on her father’s side, was Diwan Chaman Lall, who studied law at Oxford and became a freedom fighter and right-hand man to Moti Lall Nehru, Pandit Nehru’s father. After independence, he was India’s first Ambassador to Turkey, later to become a Member of Parliament rising to the Father of the House and a member of the legislative assembly. Meena’s mother became one of the top journalists in India. She had 14 magazines under her management including Eve's Weekly and Debonaire, a magazine for men.

In Harding’s words, “My artistic genes come from my mother, she has been a great inspiration to me. My passion and love of art has always been prompted by my love for flowers and colour. After my family moved to Calcutta, I was sent to be educated in Darjeeling in a Loreto convent run by Irish nuns. It was under the guidance of Mother Canice, my art teacher, that my love for flower and landscape painting was encouraged in the beautiful prize-winning convent gardens.

“In Darjeeling lived a famous Tibetan artist, Jimmy Hulbert. After I finished my education, I went back there for a year where I studied with him. It was under his guidance that I came to love and appreciate pastels.”

At home in Calcutta, Harding’s passion for flowers blossomed in her own ten-acre garden, which won, each year, all the Royal Horticultural prizes. In 1975, her mother encouraged her to exhibit her paintings in Delhi, where she had a one-woman show at the AIFACS gallery. The exhibition was received with critical acclaim.

Many important Indian collectors have purchased Meena Harding’s works. They include:
Dr Karan Singh, the Maharaja of Kashmir for his museum in Kashmir; Mr. Sanjay Gandhi son of Indira Gandhi and Mr. C. Subramanium, then finance minister, and Mohammed Yunus, then special envoy to Indira Gandhi.

Meena has lived in London with her husband Paul since 1980, where they both indulge their passion for gardening. Paul often has muddy hands with green fingertips whilst Meena’s are the colour of a chalk rainbow.