Biology was Ahsan Asif’s favourite subject for no reason other than the drawings its books contained, which he loved to copy during his junior school days.

Born in Lahore in 1975 to renowned painter Muhammad Asif, Ahsan was an average student who would mess up his textbooks with sketches, derived from human anatomy and imagination of his own.

“My early inspiration was my father. As a young kid, I used to wonder how he created images on canvass. It seemed like a magic to me.

“The collection of art books and prints of French Masters at my home always fascinated me like a colourful treasure trove,” he vividly recalls.

“These books guided me like a teacher. During my junior school, I would look at these images and copy them.

“After that, I also started reading these books. It was out of curiosity that I used to read stories and concepts behind the creation of master pieces," he relates.

Considering his interest in arts, his father suggested him to study architecture.

“One of my uncles was studying architecture. The mechanical drawings sounded boring to me and I decided to opt for fine arts,” he explains.

In 1996, he joined his father’s studio and learnt the fundamentals of drawing and painting there. After practicing there for a year, he joined the fine arts department of the National College of Arts, Lahore, and earned a bachelor's degree with honours in 2000.

“During the final year, I came across a booklet containing the works of (renowned painter) Zahurul Akhlaq. I had not seen him working, but those images left a lasting impression on my mind. His imagery knitted with grit and a very smart use of space always amused me,” he says.

This inspiration had not made a direct impact on his initial works derived from the drawings of seashells and simplified female figures. He kept experimenting with female figures till 2010.

“I was romancing with the female figure and trying to paint every aspect of relation with females,” he relates.

After 2010, he gradually switched to the traditional realistic paintings which were based on detailed study of human anatomy and traditional motives.

“I use human body as a means of expression and the traditional motives have been an integral part of my work to relate them with the cultural landscape,” he explains.

He has been in the faculty of various art institutions including Pakistan Institute of Fashion and Design and COMSATS. Currently, he is working as an assistant professor in NCA’s visual arts department.

With six solo shows and a good number of group exhibitions to his credit he has been working as a visual artist for more than a decade now. In most of his works he developed his visuals by patiently applying thin layers of transparent and semi-transparent acrylic paints on low textured canvass. He works with a wide range of colours and mature compositions reflecting his sound skills and gradually evolving concepts.

For the last few years he has ventured into three dimensional and surrealistic works inspired by a European artist, Rene Magritte.

“The way surrealist painters twist the meaning of ordinary objects from mundane life, just by changing their context, is quiet thrilling to me,” he concluded.

Published in Dawn, June 22nd, 2014