LAHORE - Pride of Performance recipient Shahid Jalal showcased his latest series of paintings at his solo show titled “Flower Carpets of Lahore” on Thursday at Ejaz Art Gallery.
The artist dynamic art reflects his prowess of simplifying complex designs and translating the best of nature on both large and medium-sized canvases.
Known to be a “Plein Air” artist with most of his canvases painted at the spot, he has restricted himself to the studio for the first time in his career to achieve the desired result on his chosen canvases.
Speaking about his inspiration and work Shahid Jalal said: “It is about the flower carpets of Lahore which were planted twice a year. I have been painting this theme for the past five years at various times. It is a total departure from what I used to do under my mentor Khalid Iqbal’s guidance. This exhibition is important to me because for the first time in my career, I have chosen to use photographs as the source of reference for my paintings instead of working at the spot.”
“The showstoppers of this exhibition are larger-than-life collages of flowers arranged as carpets. It incorporates sketches of individual flowers especially chrysanthemums and cockscombs from various gardens of Lahore. Each painting of this masterpiece will be sold individually,” he said.
Artist Saeed Akhtar said that Lahore has been decorated with a number of flowers. 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. Artist has taken inspiration from various gardens where these flowers were planted individually in pots or in groups not necessarily in the form of a carpet and captured them in his paintings.
Tanya Sohail of Punjab Arts Council said that I have seen Shahid Jalal work for many years. “Usually artists don’t really work on a specific theme but this artist struggles a lot on his exhibition and comes up always with a unique theme and subject,” she said.