Painter Lubna Jehangir’s first love and passion is to create images out of thin air. Although, she had graduated with a degree in Fine Arts from the University of Punjab, Jehangir chose advertising as her career. After almost 10 years, she went back to her paints only to realise that her skills were a little rusty.
She experimented with materials and surfaces, including gauche on paper, acrylic on paper, acrylic on canvas, pastels on paper, water colours and mixed media till she developed a style which allowed her to express her thoughts. It was during her experimental phase that she tried a new technique known as Pointillism, creating a world of illusion and complexity. It was a style originated by artist George Seurat and Paul Signac in the later half of 19th century. The art would change imperceptibly, revealing secrets that were not obvious in the first place. In Lubna’s work, women are woven into gardens, oceans, foliage, creeping vines, serpents and snakes — a galaxy of its own, which is not harmonious. Her work revolves mostly around women, featuring them both as beautiful and mysterious creatures as well as all-knowing, all-giving and all-encompassing natural beings.
Art connoisseur David Kerider quotes Rumi to describe Lubna’s work: “In your light I learn how to love. In your beauty how to make poems. You dance inside my chest where no one sees you, but sometimes I do, and that sight becomes my art”.
Over the past few years, she has participated in a number of national and international group shows, but her solo exhibition Opening the Window opens February 26 at Jharoka Art Gallery in Islamabad.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 27th, 2013.
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