JEDDAH, 28 April 2007 — Hina Shahzad, a Pakistani artist, will showcase her paintings at a solo exhibition at the Saudi Art Center here from May 6 to 13.
“I love to do pencil sketches and use water colors and oils,” Jeddah-based Hina told Arab News at her home studio Wednesday night.
Hina, who obtained both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in fine arts from Punjab University, Lahore, and lectured at the Karachi School of Art and Manarat Jeddah International School for some years had her paintings exhibited at group shows in Jeddah and in Pakistan.
Her compositions include flamingos, human stresses and phases, and still-life paintings. Some of her latest works are titled the veil, the lady, the beach, sunflowers, roses, hospitality and happiness.
Aside from the flamingo and roses, one of her other outstanding paintings is a landscape depicting the Corniche mosque which she painted while she remained seated with her husband, Shahzad Iqbal, in the car.
In fact she is a mobile painter. She carries all her accessories needed for painting whenever she goes out with her husband. “The moment I come across a striking object, scene or landscape, I immediately put them on canvas or paper with sketches or colors,” she said.
“My style is my own,” says Hina, an avid admirer of Cezanne, Matisse and Kandinsky.
She said her artwork is not dependent on preliminary sketches or aided by photographs. She uses all available colors and highlights or subdues them by a balanced application of light and shade. Line, form, light and structure, collectively make up the defined value of her artwork.
Her paintings reflect moments of joy, pride, contemplation, serenity, confusion and sometimes dissatisfaction, say some of the art connoisseurs.
“Her work is embodied with a nice sense of design and forms. She selects her subjects from her surroundings and combines imagination with it. The transparent quality in her work with the sensitive moving lines in her compositions give a different look to her paintings,” says Professor Zubaid Javed of the Department of Fine Arts, Punjab University, Lahore.
