ISLAMABAD: The ‘For the Love of Art’ exhibition featured water colour paintings offering a visual narrative of Pakistan by Shahnaz Jafar, and handcrafted trays, sculpture/paintings, boxes using mixed media on locally sourced wood by Saleema Hamid.

The aunt and niece duo are exhibiting together for the first time.

Shahnaz, who is an entirely self-taught artist, said: “Even though I have been painting for more than 20 years, and I have been exhibiting my work when I have 35 or so pieces ready, which is every two, three years, I am still amazed that I have been given this gift.”

Her paintings have two distinct oeuvres, the first similar to the cityscapes of old Lahore done by Dr Ijaz Anwar where she preserves on paper aspects of old Rawalpindi and the second floral arrangements in lovely soft tones.

“I love street scenes. I used to go out into the streets to take photographs. My father was in the army and he was of that generation that made Pakistan. He came from Delhi and after the Army he wanted to set up small scale industry.

“He loved anything to do with Pakistan handicrafts and old buildings and my mother had the most beautiful gardens. I think my fascination with the old city streets come from him and the love for flowers from my mother. In 1994-1995, my son had his exams and my mother suggested I leave my teaching and be there to support him. At that point I started learning to draw,” she explained.

Fine penmanship, delicate shading and attention to detail are the hallmarks of Shahnaz’s watercolours. In each one tiny element, like clothes hanging off balconies to dry, pigeons in a shrine, vegetables on carts and others make the scenes chapter out of daily life.

Amina Jafar said: “I love the architectural scenes, each one has a hidden jewel, old features that we are now losing. In the old parts of Rawalpindi, sometimes you have the Metro overhead and suddenly you’ll see an old balcony with the carved bits and those are aspects Shahnaz captures really well.

“The paintings are alive; when you look at them you can hear the sounds of the streets she paints, from the street vendors to hustle and bustle.”

Saleema Hamid uses readily available raw material wherever she is to produce her functional but beautiful pieces.

“When I am in the States I work a lot with driftwood; when I am here I work with sheesham and diyar. I use mixed media and it depends on what material I’m working on. For instance if I’m working on diyar I want the grains to show so I let the wood dictate what sort of designs will come about. I also merge photography with art as well,” Ms Hamid said.

She added: “I’m learning carpentry at the moment to make the boxes and so on. Driftwood takes its own shape so doing hanging sculptures with that is great. Art is something that tells your story, wherever you are with whatever you have. This exhibition is special because it is with my family.”

Maham Ali said: “Saleema Hamid’s artwork was absolutely stunning. I believe for an artist, creating art with wood is not an arbitrary decision. It comes from a very personal place and I think that’s what Saleema’s art is all about. All her pieces whether it was the boxes, trays, driftwood pieces were created with a lot of attention to detail and with beautiful manually printed artwork. The best part is that all of Saleema’s work is quite affordable and one can easily buy a few pieces in one go.”

Sara Seerat said: “I think water colours are a very hard medium to work with and the intricacy with which the detail has been done is remarkable. We’ve got one of Saleema’s pieces, a painting where she’s incorporated the natural grain of the wood into the painting.”

Published in Dawn, November 19th, 2018