Pleasing and impressive qualities of watercolour were enhanced by M A Bhatti in his portraits and cityscape paintings. While A Q Arif explored the beauty of watercolour by connecting the fantasy world of historical buildings of our country with the present time scenic beauty of northern areas in a two person exhibition at Ocean Art Gallery, Karachi.
M A Bhatti portraiture skills were evident in his black and white and colour portraits of young and old women and men belonging to rural areas. The portraits were full of expressions from joyous to melancholy. Their eyes speak their heart. Transforming simple forms and feelings into complex compositions M A Bhatti takes up serious issues and situations connected to a character balancing them with energetic colour, texture and aesthetic values.
His current work showed complex figurative compositions in bold colours depicting different emotions and obsessions of common people. He chose to highlight the people who roam around us everyday and we encounter them every now and than but we hardly notice their feelings and presence in our society such as 'Malang at the shrines, 'jogi' - a snake charmer in the street, a drummer called 'Maganhaar' at cultural festivals, 'Shehnai' at the weddings, cock-fighter called 'Khafti' in a village and an angry young man in the suburb all are the subject of M.A. Bhatti's painting.
He specially portrayed the hard life of women living in deserts may it be Thar or Rajisthan. His artworks showed red, blue, yellow and black as basic hues with small twisting tones and textural variations in different paintings. He played with various hues of colours using their darker or lighter shades to determine space and desired composition.
The intricate compositions of cityscapes by M A Bhatti were also fabulous. One can visit a city through his paintings from wide roads to narrow lanes and from tall building to markets. The hustle and bustle of city life is portrayed in elaborated detail. People busy in their daily life crossing streets and travelling in different public and private vehicles through wide and narrow streets of the city.
Other than historical architecture A Q Arif painted shrines of famous Aulia and new building inspired by Mughal era. Shadowy human figures, trees and small wild flowers breathe life in his buildings of sand and brick. Through dreamy ambiance his paintings gave the sight of the place as well as insight of our heritage. By manipulating colour and structure he brought out a traditional form with a true image.
He explored his signature style of architecture painting in watercolour also. This style helped him experiment forms and textures through repetition of same subject matter in various colour schemes creating a sense of perspective, exposing his paint application, composition and basic drawing.
His present work was aimed at depicting peace and tranquillity through nature and shrines. Flying pigeons under cloudy skies, mist, autumn leaves and blowing wind around the old buildings and shadowy human figures created a mystic ambiance in his paintings.
A well rehearsed set of forms can easily be seen in his paintings, which appears repeatedly in his works. Having human activity and colourful vegetation the same designs are composed vertically or horizontally in bright harmonious colours within a misty atmosphere giving a dream like appearance to his paintings.
His motifs and architectural forms filled with hues of blue, brown, red and yellow. Strategically the images of heritage sites in few paintings were done in a single colour - blue to enhance the luminosity of surface.
Forms are composed symmetrically on the surface and a monotonous line outlines the shapes. Colours served as basic element and enhance the texture of symbolic patterns.
The exhibition was great and the viewers got a chance to witness a fantasy world of historical buildings of our country along with everyday busy rural and urban life of common people.
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