KARACHI, Aug 31: A three-day exhibition titled ‘Paiwasta Reh Shajar Se’, curated by Sophia Qureshi and conceptualised and organised by Mehreen Hashmi, concluded at the Alliance Francaise Karachi on Saturday.

The show was the result of a 10-day workshop conducted in July during which students of BPW Quality School, Azam Basti, produced no fewer than 60 paintings on different subjects. The children, aged between 11 and 13, were taught by Ms Hashmi about the basics of drawing and painting. They were given a few themes including flowers, pets, skyline and landscape besides getting inspiration from a European master’s work that the students followed and came up with some very nice artworks.

They did exceedingly well, and the credit for that goes to those who taught them how to use and respect colours. In fact some of the students definitely have a bright future if they don’t stop practising art.

Fahad, Talha and Rehan’s illustrations of a floral object have similarities as far as their technique is concerned but it is the minor differences in the use of thickness of colours that sets them apart.

Nisha’s effort in drawing the cityscape or skyline is praiseworthy. The young artist doesn’t drastically deviate from the rest of her friends and yet proves, through deft touches, how diversity can be achieved by remaining in the one creative domain.

It was nice of Ms Hashmi to familiarise the students with a European master’s work. Obviously they’re too young to fathom how the great artist worked, still they’re now at least aware of some of the visual possibilities that they can explore in the future.