Iqbal Ahmed Khokhar was born in 1973 in a remote small village near Mohenjodaro to a family of artisans. Most of them used to practise crafting and designing of jewellery for a living. He vividly remembers the ambiance of a small village and the proud craftsmen, who were always looking for precision and innovations.

He remembers one of his teachers, Asadullah, who used to do calligraphy, drawing and painting, as his initial source of inspiration during junior school days. He was in grade nine when he was introduced to an artist, Abdul Raheem, who was practising in Karachi and occasionally visited his village. Considering Iqbal’s interest in drawing, he guided him to draw and gave him art material to practise. He was a good student, keenly interested in studies. His parents sent him to Larkana for higher secondary schooling, where he learnt the basics of visual arts at the studio of a senior and renowned portrait-painter Imdad Narejo.

Coming from a remote rural background, Iqbal had no idea of art education until a cricket team from Sindh University came to play a tournament in his village. One of the team members was his elder brother’s friend. He admired the welcome posters made by the young artist and advised him to have formal art education. He joined the Sindh University where Nusrat Mirza, Mr Mansoor and Ali Nawaz helped him learn the basics of drawing painting and miniature.

Except for a few landscapes he had done, drawing the realistic portraits was his passion. He came to Lahore to see his friends Tariq Abro, Jam Depar and Nadir Jamali studying at the National College of Arts (NCA).

“I visited the Lahore Art Gallery hosting a solo show of Iqbal Hussain. The impact of paintings and environment of the gallery mesmerised me,” he vividly recalls. He also visited the Fine Arts Department at the Punjab University. The working environment at the Punjab University attracted him to join for Masters in Fine Arts in 1997.

“Learning from experienced artists like Zulqarnain Haider, Naila Amir and Zubaida Javaid was an amazing experience and a turning point of my life.

“Zubaida Javaid was very kind to me. She supported me financially as well,” he said.

Right after doing masters in 1999, he joined the faculty of Chand Bagh, a boarding school at Muridke. The life at boarding school was full of activities which offers a lot to learn at one hand and hinders the artistic practice at the other. He used to visit art galleries in Lahore at every weekend and kept on painting.

“I think that the interaction with fellow artists, a sense of competition and a feel of jealousy act as a force and fuel to work. While staying away from art scene of Lahore, I failed to explore my creative potential to maximum,” he admits.

Inspired by the works of Ustad Allah Buksh and Khalid Iqbal, he is working for more than a decade with three solo and good number of group shows to his credit.

“The handling of paint, feel of light and depth of field in the works of Khalid Iqbal is a great source of inspiration for me,” he says. Iqbal Ahmed Khokhar learnt the technique of wood carving from Asif Sharif, but could not spare time to practise.

He prefers to paint on used canvasses, following one of his teachers. “It is easy for me to work on already painted surface. After diffusing the identity of the previously painted images, I start building quickly my own visual. To work on white surface looks tiring to me,” he adds. He usually paints simplified figurative landscapes in mute tones.

“I have painted a good number of lush green landscapes, but had never displayed them. They seem incomplete to me without human figures,” he says.

He works mostly in oils on low textured canvass with mellow tones. He has a passion to paint portraits and figures, but for the last few years he is working on a series of paintings depicting rustic rural life and roadside hotel scenes. These works were appreciated and became his identity.

“I work spontaneously on the spot and finish the painting in three stages which are drawing, filling the canvass and details.

“I deal every figure individually so even if someone leaves the scene, it does not disturb the mood and tempo of the painting,” he says.

After working for 14 years as an art teacher at Chand Bagh School, he recently moved to Lahore to set up a studio of his own. He is teaching drawing to young aspirants at Coopera Art Gallery, Lahore as well.

“There are gaps when I do not work but keep on cooking ideas, when I start working I forget everything else and it becomes a crazy affair for me.

“My paintings reflect the bitter realities of life of rural folks. The colours reflect the gloomy mood which dominates but there are tints of hope as well. The hopes which they are striving for,” he adds.