Lubna’s world of ethereal illusion at Jharoka
An exhibition titled ‘Opening the Window’ by opened at the Jharoka Art Gallery on Tuesday. It showcases the artist’s creative effort to capture ethereal world in watercolours in a beautiful merger of illusion of constant motion.
Argentinean Rodolfo J. Martin Saravia inaugurated the exhibition displaying twenty-five pieces by the artist that revolve around women and nature, featuring them both as beautiful, mysterious, all-knowing, all-giving and all-encompassing inseparable part of Mother Earth.
While going through Lubna’s pieces, Rodolfo J. Martin Saravia said that the drawings are beautiful as well as breathtaking, stirring up deep emotions and appreciation for the beauty that is all around us, evoking a deep peace within the heart of the viewer in a visual delight.
The art connoisseurs visiting the exhibition experienced a unique visual excitement connecting to each of her work in minute detail captivating beyond words. Each drawing looked vibrantly alive with its own personality of delicate intricacy as well as a beautiful sensitivity that can only come into existence through a depth of emotions and creative sensitivity to feel the life around us. The colour added by the artist to portray her focus on Pointillism technique also adds to them a magical, almost otherworldly quality, in dreamy and whimsical way that feels gentle like whispers.
Nahida Raza, director of the Jharoka Art Gallery, describes Lubna’s work as a creative effort to connect women and nature in a fine blend that complements each other in a diverse way. Nahida said that by using 0-size brush to capture flowing lines and the merging colours, Lubna has brought a fairytale like flawless finesse to her works.
Lubna Jehangir with a major in Fine Arts took up advertising as her career after completing her Masters in Fine Arts from the Punjab University. The excitement and challenges of the profession involved her to the extent that she hardly found time for her first love and passion, which was creating images out of thin air. Although over the years she continued to draw and paint, it was more as a supplement to her profession. After almost a decade when she took up painting again, the realisation dawned that, the long gap had rusted her skills.
She kept experimenting with materials and surfaces, including gauche on paper, acrylic on paper, acrylic on canvas, pastels on paper, watercolour and mix media till she developed a style, which allowed her to express her thoughts. It was during her experimental phase that she tried her hand at pointillism in watercolour. The initial results fascinated her compelling her to further explore the medium and style, till she had something to offer to the art lovers. This was heavily influenced by Pointillism a technique of painting developed by Georges Seurat in 1880s. Her work has an ethereal feel to it. The flowing lines and the merging colours create an illusion of constant motion.
Over past few years, she has participated in a number of national and international group shows, but this is her first solo exhibition in collaboration with the Jharoka Art Gallery in Islamabad.
An art connoisseur, David Kerider quotes Rumi to describe Lubna’s work: “In your light I learn how to love. In your beauty how to make poems. You dance inside my chest where no one sees you, but sometimes I do, and that sight becomes my art.”
The exhibition will continue till March 7 (Sunday off) at the Jharoka Art Gallery (House 8, Street 28, Sector F-8/1).
(Thenews)
