With the blend of realism and modernism Salman Farooqi harmonizes his paintings with layers of colours, symbolic cubic forms and extended shadows. And the synthesis is an innovative style which gained him acclaim in the art world and also among his contemporaries.
The images of corporeal things seem tangible in Salman's paintings exhibited at Artscene Galleries, Karachi. In his conceptual paintings he connects reality with vivid imagination, the amorphous sun, shadowy boats and nebulous buildings all tell a day-to-day life but in a different way.
Possessing a lively recollection of events his paintings are like refreshing breeze. The boats and buildings are the most conspicuous feature of his paintings which are made more visible by using soft and bold colours. Various tones of yellow, blue and red make his works a recollection in tranquillity. The soothingness and coolness of his paintings comes from the transparent colours he uses. He has good command on white colour and uses it to blend and create different tones which give transparency to his paintings.
The subtle colours help him communicate with others by blending feelings of comfort and possessions. As his paintings gives an empathetic sense to people and they become responsive to his artworks.
While talking to Salman I feel that he paints without planning and after inquiring he endorse my opinion. He executes his painting after coming in front of the canvas. Then his thoughts and imagination start producing forms and structures on the canvas and he paints in the flow of those ideas and inspirations. His artistic abilities become more evident in the inventiveness and impressions he creates thus able to achieve in creating his own specific style.
Driven by remarkable creativity he creates delineative and depictive forms persuading others in believing that the askew objects are real. In fact his imagination marks the outline of the real figures and he simply distorts them on the canvas.
Using visual vocabulary he presents his experiences and ideas in a distorted form which is a unique mode of expression. After finishing his painting based on reality he slightly distorts it by using squares thus giving his realistic work a cubic touch. Thus the boats, river, sun and buildings representing a real life picture in an asymmetrical manner.
He is currently working on a few murals on cityscape as well as seascape. Through luminous colour palette and well balanced compositions he skilfully creates aesthetically gratifying paintings.
The windows of the houses, the sun in the sky and the boats in the sea all are representing hope and life that continues no matter what comes and goes around us, we must live life with hope for the better.
He changes the appearance of the surrounding which is seen by the naked eye. The distorted sun and cubic shadows are invariant in his paintings. Whether he paints architectural structures or the boats harbouring at the shore the sun and shadows constantly joins. This provides a rhythm to his paintings which seemed interrelated and connected to each other.
His artworks show his artistic approach in an attractive and absorbing manner. He captures the true picture of a city - a combination of mortar buildings and wires, big and small structures erected side by side without harmony and understanding of space and privacy certainly a proper understanding of life in a big city. The boats harbouring in the calm waters seems to rest and regain energy for the next trip.
The sun is for everyone whether you are on land or in sea therefore Salman made sun a fixture of his paintings which is a source of life and hope for all no matter where they are the sun is there.
He perceived ordinary subjects which caught his eye and transformed them on his canvas with the blend of his imagination and ideas. He hides his concepts that exist in his mind in the paintings in layers of colours, cubes and shadows.
Although his paintings show daily life in cityscapes and seascapes but are devoid of life only objects, elements and structures are seen with no signs of life. These objects, elements and structures are enough to support his basic subject.
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