Art Facts: Imbued with colours of spring

Imbued with colours of spring the paintings by Shahid Jalal welcomed the enthusiastic nature lovers who got delighted by the spring colours scattered on the canvases in the form of floral carpets in a solo exhibition titled "Flower Carpets of Lahore", at Artscene Galleries, Karachi. It was a travelling show as it has been exhibited in Lahore at Ejaz Art Gallery, Lahore recently earlier this month.
The nature has blessed our country with different beauties and flowers are one of them. The paintings featured the vast range of flowers of many varieties which were planted at different gardens across Lahore. The spring flowers blossoming in numerous beautiful shades mesmerised the flower lovers. The lush green grounds were adorned with floral carpets arranged in such a way that one can felt the fragrance of flowers even from the paintings.
Dozens of different flower arrangements were painted displaying colours of creative ideas thus celebrating spring season at public parks arranged by the Parks and Horticultural Authority, Lahore.
Shahid got inspired by the exquisite works of artisans while visiting a carpet museum in Tehran during his trip to Iran. He remembered such works made in Lahore some centuries ago and he decided to incorporate these designs in his paintings. The idea took shape in the form of painting of floral carpets resulted in the current series of works.
He elaborated his works, "I like to maintain as much detail as possible and yet retain the complexity of the design. This is not easy. I have had to visit the canvases long after I thought I had completed the painting. In some paintings because of the scale it was a real struggle to get the perspective and distance right."
Born in 1948 Shahid Jalal loved to paint realistic paintings especially landscapes and do not have interest in abstract art from the beginning of his career. An alumnus of National College of Arts (NCA), Lahore Shahid won an award at the Punjab Painters Exhibition in 1989. He is also the recipient of the President's Award for Pride of Performance in the field of Paintings in 1994. His paintings adorned the walls of the National Gallery of Pakistan, the National Assembly, the PM's House, the World Bank, Pakistan and Pakistan House in Delhi other than private collections.
He always preferred on spot painting. He enjoyed painting nature while surrounded by nature. His current works covered the subject of flower carpets in Lahore. He stated, "About six years ago the gardeners of the various public parks of Lahore, working under the Parks and Horticultural Authority started planting seasonal flowers in very interesting patterns in the form of carpets on very large tracts of the gardens and along the canal. I hope to capture those designs."
Shahid has been painting this theme for the last five years. He painted these flowers which were planted twice a year in various gardens across Lahore, marigolds in the winter and petunias and other seasonal flowers in spring.
He used thick impasto brush strokes in bringing out natural beauty of flowers and the peculiar forms of flowers along with subtle patterns. In his intricately executed landscapes he created warmth and attraction by the play of sunlight and shadows other than striking larger designs.
He has chosen the subject dear to him that is Mother Nature. He loved to paint landscapes as it was the best way to appreciate nature and let others do so by viewing his works.
Although the flower carpet's designs have many different parts and a lot of details and were organised in a complex way Shahid brought out all these characters of a perfect garden in his paintings. He elaborated his landscapes with a lot of intricate detail and flowers served as extravagant ornamentation for his works.
Thus his works were thought out and organised with thoroughness and careful attention to detail made his landscapes precisely refined and soothing to eyes. He worked on large size canvases and therefore it was difficult for him to paint on location hence for the first time in his career he used photographs of the locations to paint in his studios and tried his best to create true colours and tones of flowers.
The delicate flowers arranged in stylish and elegant manner in different designs having soft and bright hues from white, yellow, pink, orange to red and purple, showing tastefulness of the artist as well as the gardeners who planted the flowers in such beautiful arrangements.
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