Mystery opens: ‘Sketching and drawing are part of my soul’

I start with simple lines and use both hands while drawing. This way I put 100% into my work.” says Hussain.

LAHORE:

 Saadia Hussain’s exhibition, Mystery, opened at the Colors Art Gallery on January 8. Nine pieces, all graphite on paper, were on display.

Hussain, a 1998 graduate from the National College of Arts (NCA) said she had titled the pieces Mystery because she never knows “about the end product when she begins work on a piece.”

“I just take a blank sheet and seek inspiration from the objects around me.

I start with simple lines and use both hands while drawing. This way I put 100% into my work.”

She added, “I then observe the positives and negatives in my work and try not to repeat them.”

Hussain, 40, holds a Masters of Visual Arts degree from the NCA.

“I also like to incorporate pictures into my work. I like experimenting with old photographs and videos,” said Hussain. But sketching and drawings, the artist added, always draws her back. “I feel it is part of my soul.”

Artist and critic Quddus Mirza said he felt Hussain had grown as an artist. “Her work is very expressionistic. Her use of materials is always innovative and skillful.”

Hussain will also display some work at the VM Art Gallery in Karachi. “In that work, I have created collages using pictures of my grandparents. It is a different kind of work.”

The paintings in the Lahore exhibition are priced between Rs30,000 and Rs40,000.

Mystery will run till January 15.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 9^th, 2013.