Diploma programmes: Pen and ink as a medium

Citizens flock to show in droves

LAHORE: The NCA’s Zahoorul Akhlaq Gallery was packed on Wednesday with scores of art lovers who had gathered at the venue to see the work of graduating students from the varsity’s one-year diploma programmes in traditional art and fine arts.

“I was always interested in miniature painting. I enrolled for the course as I wanted to specialise in it, Mehreen Naseem, one of the students,” told The Express Tribune. She said nature was a subject that had always appealed her the most. Naseem said she favoured Lawrence Gardens because of its aged trees. She said the light and shadows in the gardens had left her mesmerised.

Another student Zahra Ishaq said all of her work was composed of landscape drawings. “I have tried to explore various surfaces using pen and ink as my medium,” she said. Ishaq said she had used a wooden plank, wood ply, terracotta and porcelain pits, egg shells and different kinds of paper in her work. She said she had not treated any of the surfaces as she wanted to retain the natural look. Ishaq said she was a lover of nature and that was why she had chosen to work around it.

Ahmed Shahzad, one of the students, said he had always been interested in painting and drawing. Shahzad, a doctor by profession, he had kept on doing it on the side but had always found a third dimension to his work lacking. He said his inability to do so was one of the reasons that that made him enrol at the course. Shahzad said his work was premised on the human body as he already had a grounding in it. “I wanted to portray a bevy of expressions in my work using scores of materials,” he said.

Another student Ufaq Altaf said her work was not based on a particular theme. She said her work showed all the techniques she had learnt over the course. Her brother Fahd Altaf, who is hearing impaired, also completed the programme alongside her. “Fahd creates his own designs and is very headstrong and inflexible when it comes to his work,” she sad. “I like his work over mine,” Altaf said.

“Fresco painting is design-based wherein one is taught how to make flowers and leaves. We create our own designs using the elements thereafter,” Sidra Iqbal, one of the students said. She said while the colours traditionally used in fresco painting tended to be extremely light, the students had slightly played around with the convention this year. “Fresco painting is usually done on a tile but here we have used a canvas,” Iqbal said.

The show will conclude on February 13.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 4^th,  2016.