Tariq Gill is notorious in his friends’ circle for not returning borrowed books. On the other hand, he is generous enough to share with them all his collections, piled up in one of his two-room studio, which looks like an old bookseller’s shop.

A keen reader, he has been collecting books for at least three decades. Almost all the booksellers dealing in old books respect this ‘grey haired man’ as a regular buyer. “I was interested in fine arts and literature but my parents forced me to study science. During my studies in FSc and BSc, I started a parallel study of art and literature, on my own. As a member of all the public libraries in Lahore, I had access to an unlimited stock of books, but I was a slow reader and can’t stay for long hours in libraries, so started collecting my own.”

The illustrations in Russian literature and paintings in Readers Digest were his first exposure to visual arts during his early childhood. He couldn’t read these publications but kept them in his school bag to enjoy the aesthetics of illustrations, drawings and paintings of Matisse, Picasso and various unknown artists. Going through the sketchbook of his elder sister was a great fascination and he often used to wonder from where these images come into existence. “I would delicately make reed pens and had a good handwriting. I started copying the printed images which later developed into the sketching of real objects. The process continued and evolved into drawing from my own imagination and memory.”

He started painting with water-based colours and enamels when he was in high school. Going through art books he learnt how to make brushes and paints from easily available ordinary materials. Sketching regularly he developed the basic drawing skills.

Gill got a job in a chemical factory in 1977 as a supervisor of hydrochloric acid plant. In 1984 he joined the Fine Arts Department of National College of Arts for formal art education. “Spending all the day in studios and working in the night shift at factory has been hectic but a thrilling experience. It made me realise the importance of time. I enjoyed my time at the studio and it was also fun to leave the college and rush to catch the factory bus. The factory became another studio for me. I kept on sketching during night shift while other fellows were snoring. The series of paintings entitled ‘Entangled’, dealing with the miseries of working class and the influence of working environment on individual, was done while working at acid plant.”

He majored in Sculpture in 1988. During studies, he kept on researching and experimenting on his own and developed a small studio for metal casting that he couldn’t sustain for long because of his limited resources. “I studied miniature as a minor subject. In those days miniature painting was ridiculed at NCA as a discarded art, but it gave me a lot of control on line drawing and helped a great deal in developing a temperament to work with perseverance.”

In 2000, he started teaching sculpture at Hunerkada School for Visual Arts and worked there for four years. Teaching the basic techniques to students triggered his creative process as well. He created small-scale sculptures in various mediums. They were derived from his semi-abstract drawings and paintings. From 2006 onwards, he has been teaching sculpture at NCA. After long working hours at college, he spends time in his studio, reading and painting. “Literature, isolation and recalling images from the warehouse of memory has played a major role in developing my own signs and symbols which narrate my personal experiences, dreams and imaginations,” he said.

Well-read with a lot of pictorial record in his memory, he can scan any artwork within a fraction of a second, more efficiently than any software. He can tell you exactly whether the work is original or derived, totally or partially and from which artist.

With a profound knowledge of chemistry he has a deep insight into art materials and techniques used in mould making, casting the sculptures. He is one of very few sculptors in Pakistan who are skilled in metal casting especially in bronze and copper.

Gill has four solo shows to his credit. He is widely respected and loved by his students. Detached from the art groupings and the market, he lives peacefully in the island of his own creative imagination.