The book under review is a biography of an eminent artist and a humanist, Jimmy Engineer capturing the whole life and works of the artist down the memory lane bit by bit, piece by piece. His family and friends and social work and achievements all in a chronological order are recorded in this book for posterity. "To be able to enjoy one's past life is to live twice". (Martial).
For decades he has been organising walks and walking from Karachi to Khyber to raise awareness on various issues close to his heart. Jimmy has undertaken numerous walks for the promotion of human rights and creation of an equitable civil society. The memories reveals the good times and the struggle for special children, child labour, mother and child health, leprosy awareness, mental health, for cancer patients, and peace walks.
Jimmy's parents were kind and helpful by nature and this quality transferred to their son also. Jimmy grew up in a friendly atmosphere where everybody is welcomed in a home with warmth. He is a 'miracle man'. When he was six years old he became seriously ill and diagnosed kidney failure by the reputed doctors. Both of his kidneys shrunk and doctors expressed their helplessness as no treatment was available. They estimated he had about six months to live. But as the time passed Jimmy started to recover and doctors become amazed as there was no logical explanation for his recovery and he become absolutely healthy. The doctors declared it as a 'miracle'.
Jimmy talks of the event as the first miracle in his life and feels he was saved for a purpose. In his school days he used to sketch with crayons and pencils on a sketch pad and spend his leisure time in drawing pictures of places and people around him. Jimmy refers to participating in a painting exhibition in 1960 at school as his debut. His work was noted and mentioned in a review in the historic newspaper initiated by Rudyard Kipling.
From 1973 onwards Jimmy was plagued with disturbing violent dreams of dramatic scenes of events took place during partition. He then decided to transform his dreams on the large canvases in 'Independence' series. When he joined NCA he was fortunate enough to be guided by Professor Shakir Ali and Professor Khalid Iqbal. He has great respect for his teachers at the NCA such as Ustad Shujaullah and Colin David. After spending three years at the NCA he returned to Bapsi Sidhwa's garage who is a next door neighbour and allowed Jimmy to use her garage as a studio. From there he continued to paint his dreams. In 1977 he participated in a group exhibition at the Lahore Museum and since than her paintings are displayed now and than in solo and group shows.
Travelling throughout the country, Jimmy has documented human lives, nature and animals in his drawings and sketches in graphite, ink and oil. His collection of drawings and sketches is included under caption 'Creatives of God' in the book. His diverse repertoire in painting from Independence series to Javid Nama mural to heritage and war on terrorism is finely arranged under various captions capturing his range of artworks like architecture, landscapes, seascapes, abstracts, calligraphy, mood series, still life, miniature, figures and drawings.
Jimmy Engineer is greatly inspired by the cultural heritage of our country which he portrays in his paintings from Sagas of ancient civilisations to the modern times. 'Cultural Paintings' series, 'Unity, Faith and Discipline' painting and 'Old Civilisation' series of paintings are based on cultural themes.
He also painted Architectural series featuring diverse structures from around the world. A colourful collection of abstract paintings shows a break from his signature style of painting. Having over 600 pages the book is a detailed account of life and works of Jimmy Engineer. He has received several awards for his achievements as an artist and a humanist since 1976 are also mentioned in the book including Sitara-i-Imtiaz (Civil Award) from the Government of Pakistan in 2005.
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Book : "In Search of my Master: Jimmy Engineer"
Author : Marjorie Husain
Publisher : BBCL Publications, Karachi
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