FROM INFLUENCE TO CONFLUENCE When the twain meet by Ariane Mercier French artist and Indophile, Ariane Mercier, was captivated by exhibits of the Bikaner school of miniature paintings in Paris. Having attended workshops in botanical painting in Paris and London, with their emphasis on scientific exactitude, she was drawn to the work of Mahaveer Swami, practitioner of the Mughal miniature and a sophisticated descendant of the Bikaner School. Mercier writes of her experience in ‘crossing over’.