Shades of nature captured on canvas
ISLAMABAD: The Jharoka Art Gallery in Islamabad held an exhibition of 20 paintings by first-time artist Major Adnan Shahzad.
The paintings were a mix of materials and styles with a lot of pieces portraying masks and nature.
The artist is an army man who spends a lot of time in the great outdoors and says that is where he finds his inspiration.
“When an artist spends as much time as I do outside, he is bound to be inspired by nature sooner or later,” Mr Shahzad said.
The other common theme among his work was masks. He said the masks represented everyday life and how people were not always what they appeared to be.
“I don’t mean this negatively. We cannot react to anything naturally, the way we want to. All our expressions have to be moulded around the tight conformities of societal approval.”
Major Shahzad said he had tried to showcase all the different sides of him in his first exhibition.
“All my colours are splashed out on these canvases. I felt like I needed to do this before I start to focus on one type of art. The next exhibition will be thematic,” he added.
When asked what gets him in the mood to paint, Mr Shahzad said all he had to do was close his eyes, sit in front of his easel and that was enough to inspire a new painting.
On comments about how he balances his army life with his artistic one, the major said he was like a coconut: a hard army man on the outside, a soft artist on the inside.