Making mundane vivid: Of the burden they carry, buoyancy they lend

Maryam Rasul and Humaira Malik depict resilience of women through their paintings.

RAWALPINDI:

Few landscape artists can grow without the influence of GR’s (Ghulam Rasul) profoundly inspiring relationship with nature. Artists Maryam Rasul (daughter of one of the most celebrated landscape painters of the country) and Humaira Malik transform mundane observations into vivid canvases, 40 of which are on display at the Rawalpindi Arts Council, depicting resilience of women.

The show also coincides with the National Women’s Day.

Malik’s work is rich in colour and composition; though lacking in mood, the paintings are ablaze with presence. Depicting mostly women and burdened with symbolism, the landscapes lend certain buoyancy to their subjects.

“I see a certain depth in the resilience of women, who find a way to grow emotionally and socialise despite the visible and invisible walls inhibiting them,” shares Malik, pointing out subtle references to such obstacles such as pigeons, black cats and tall boundaries.

“I see the black cat not as omen but as a natural part of that panorama,” she adds.

The canvases largely depict rural women in multi-layered environs, gossiping under an oak tree or going about chores, often seen under cascading red-orange leaves signalling the onslaught of the next season.

Humaira, whose paintings have often been acknowledged as a blaring reference to GR, similar in a vivid palette and in its celebration of shifting seasons, admits that her introduction to landscape was in fact through the most revered artist.



“At one point, I grew disappointed in myself,” she professes, adding that such unintended comparisons between her work and GR’s incited her to almost give up painting. It wasn’t until GR imparted wisdom which echoed with Maryam and Humaira and allowed the latter to continue her pursuit: all artists need to traverse the same path before they reach an individuality that characterises their work.

In similar spirit, Maryam’s has been a struggle to come out of her father’s shadow and create a canvas that is her own, without the pressures of being paralleled with GR. Maryam’s work has its own mood and palette which is sombre and less controlled, and what is displayed is a mix of landscape, still life and the odd portrait. Treated in a Van Gogh-esque manner, a portrait of Maryam’s maid in blue and orange hues stands out in the row of paintings.

“I used to observe her expressions with so much fascination,” relates Maryam, “I wanted to paint her when she seemed tired and upset.” The portrait strays from any realism but the expressions are jarringly raw and almost pouring out of the canvas to inspire the onlooker. It’s neighbouring piece, a simplified landscape cloaked in the dreary mood reflecting its subjects who are tired laborers settling under a tree for a hard-earned siesta.

Maryam’s inclination towards still life was part of her endeavour to wander away from her father’s style. Depicting household items in a palette that is warmer than her older work, Maryam’s still lives are more interesting than her landscapes, the latter sometimes devoid of the remarkable emotion she transcribes in impassive objects.  Of her landscapes, Maryam’s shift towards her father’s style of flat surfaces is fresh and dreamlike, though the artist admits that she is far from mastering the difficult technique.

“I had a dream about my father and he told me go outside and paint,” Maryam shares, adding that during an uninspired period in her life, the dream created an inward dialogue that resulted in the tall vertical paintings with flat green blocks and surreal blue livestock.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 13^th, 2013.