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March 3, 2005
Out of the bottle
At times Umbreen’s inspiration comes from the shape, size and texture of the bottle itself, but at other times she just creates whatever fancies her, writes Rumana Husain
“I have been seeing my mother painting since my childhood. She paints with watercolours as well as oils. So, I do interested in painting as well,” says Umbreen Mahmood, the ‘bottle-painter.’
She claims that she is the kind of person who can learn anything —- painting, knitting, stitching, embroidery, paper-folding (origami) — using her two hands.
She forgets to mention another art that she learnt not too long ago: the art of cooking Italian food and of running a successful restaurant.
Sitting inside her restaurant we are surrounded by glass bottles of different shapes and sizes that decorate corners and shelves. I am somehow reminded of the people of Tharparkar, Rajhasthan and Kutch who use every utensil as an object of display in their homes, perhaps a contemporary equivalent of the Moghul ‘chini khana.’
Some of the bottles hold my attention as they catch the sunlight in a dazzling manner. Umbreen asks a waiter to bring a few over to our table.
“Any specific reason for using this particular medium?” I ask. She responds with her characteristic broad smile, “I had been busy raising my children, waiting every day for my husband to return home in the evenings just like any other housewife. One day while watching a programme on BBC about an old man who worked with junk, I was so inspired by that programme that it got me thinking. We throw away used bottles and I decided to get hold of a few and paint them. ”
From then on it was empty oil, soft drink, detergent, jam and jelly bottles, just about any type of bottle. Her husband encouraged her in her hobby and kept bringing her a supply of them from Botal gali.
Umbreen talks about her progress in the craft, saying, “I met a London-based Pakistani political painter, Afshan Shoaib, in Karachi. I told her that I also painted, but I had no idea what she would say about my medium. She was most encouraging. She saw my work then called me and showed her own paintings.
Moreover, she took me to meet art critic Nilofur Furrukh who said that she would call me the ‘first bottle painter of Pakistan.’ She also told me that I should take my work seriously and sign it, and write the date on each bottle.
Besides them, a French friend of mine also encouraged me. I had an exhibition of these bottles at the Alliance Francaise, at a French bazaar, and then two art galleries offered to keep my bottles in their premises.
Umbreen says that she was surprised when her bottles started to sell. The prices range between Rs350 to Rs10,000.
She concedes that she has had no formal training in drawing or painting. Nevertheless, her dedication to her work is worth applauding and its variety is quite interesting.
She first gives a wash of colour to the surface of the bottle and then decides what to paint on it. At times her inspiration comes from the shape, size and texture of the bottle itself, but at other times she just paints whatever she fancies. From harvest scenes to autumn scenes, from plants to exotic flowers, from nudes on beaches to boats in the water, she picks up the colours used for stained-glass and infuses the outlines of her forms with mundane glass bottles into works of art –— albeit art of another kind.
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