Puerto Rican painter Solimar Miller discusses her show focused on the Emirates’ native trees

DUBAI: The UAE-based Puerto Rican artist Solimar Miller’s latest exhibition, “Witnessing Us,” which ends this week at Dubai’s XVA Gallery, is a tribute to the nature of the place she has called home for more than 25 years — specifically its trees. 

Through a collection of sketches and screen prints on silk velvet and canvas, Miller recreates lush landscapes dotted with trees in myriads of colours. The artist and textile designer has been deeply disturbed by the destruction of trees caused by rapid urbanization, and decided to document indigenous plant species of the UAE to raise awareness of it.  

“In early 2000, when I was a new resident of Dubai, there were a lot more older trees around. Later, when I became a mom, I used to drive my sons to their school in the Nad Al-Sheba area. I loved that stretch of road, it was a stunning sight, densely covered with tall date palms and pink bougainvillea,” Miller tells Arab News. “But over the years I saw the landscape change as construction increased and the number of trees went down. The remaining ones were also slowly dying. I felt a calling to capture them on canvas to bring attention to them (and say that we need to) let them live and thrive.”  

There are 22 artworks in “Witnessing Us” — detailed sketches and screen prints of trees native to the region including sidr, samar, pomegranate, ghaff, date palms, plumeria, flamboyant and mulberry.  

Miller’s artistic process begins with close observation of the trees she plans to sketch, sitting in the desert with a sketch book for hours. “I like to take in all the details — from the texture of the bark to the shape of the branches. When it’s too hot, I photograph the tree from all angles and take a few samples of the leaves and bark as references,” she explains. 

Along with her drawings and paintings, screen prints are an integral part of Miller’s art. Each sketch is scanned, edited, then printed on transparent film and transferred on to silk, velvet or canvas with handmade screens and inks. “It’s a fascinating process. Each design and medium produces a unique effect,” she says.  

Silk velvet, for instance, the artist points out, gives a three-dimensional effect, rendering a different perspective to the viewer depending on which angle the artwork is viewed from. 

In one print, “Whispering Trees,” a group of trees are portrayed in gold and rust tones, with branches overlapping each other, as if conversing. In contrast, the dark shades of “Peace of Mind” capture the tranquillity of the desert under a full moon, the trees’ deep roots meshing into the artwork, flanked by palms, olive and fig trees.  

In “The Noble Ones” — a screen print on canvas — Miller depicts a peaceful Eden, with a woman plucking fruit from one of the trees, representing the connection between human beings and nature. 

Along with documenting trees in her neighbourhood, the artist has been tending to several indigenous trees in her own garden for years. She feels strongly that governments and town planners need to make a greater effort to put nature first.  

“It is said that one tree can supply a day’s oxygen to four people, yet we see that there is no consideration for them when land is allocated for construction,” she says, pointing out that 15 billion trees are cut down annually worldwide. 

Her ardent love for nature, she says, can be traced back to her childhood in Puerto Rico. “My childhood home had a garden laden with trees. One of my early vivid memories is of my father knocking down a coconut and slicing it open for me to drink the sweet water. Even today I cherish these tender memories and wish more people could have such interactions with nature. We need more trees and more tranquillity in our lives,” she says.