His recent collection of paintings in a solo exhibition at Ocean galleries, Lahore are produced in a series and a large narrative is composed through individual paintings that share similar proportion and colour pallets. The process of creating a painting contains all his past and present experiences, passion, skill, control and an attempt to capture the fleeting moment in time.
As he shifted from city of lights to walled city the colours of his paintings also changed. As the environment changes the ambience of his paintings undergoes transition. The colours and figures become more bold and forceful. And the figures seemed to come out of shadows and become more visual. He balanced very beautifully the rose red, bright sunny yellow and flame orange with midnight black and moonlight white along with soft shades of pink, sky blue and lilac.
Having transparency and third dimension in an idealistic landscape he retains his signature style as he paints the full figure of women silhouettes against the soft and pale backgrounds revealing moments of aberration.
His paintings reveal metallic women sculptures as he skilfully maintains splendid portrayal of woman's body structure. He artistically diffused various figures and their reflections making it impossible to identify the real images. He created a peculiar atmosphere in the paintings by merging and emerging transparent figures in unusual ambiances.
With casual elegance mostly faceless female figures make statements through their silence. Through women figures he captured the emotional phases of women, light and bright as well as dull and boring. The women figures in his paintings seem to convey complex realities of life. Combining figurative, cubism and surrealistic forms in a single painting he has achieved an irreplaceable style of his own.
Maqbool Ahmed has long been achieved a signature style but it hasn't made him confined to repeating again and again the same mode instead he retained his signature style and move forward by experimenting and inventing thus elaborating his own original style, and hence acquired a diverse mode of painting to distinguish him among his contemporaries.
He creates a vague ambiance through reflections as well as refractions of his subjects. An aura of mystery is formed by the reflections within reflections and the object and subject diffuse in those various reflections making it impossible to identify the real subject.
The treatment, tones and values of his paintings portray deep soothing and absorbing thoughts. Some moments away from the real world, deviating from the usual and entering the new world - a world of distinctive sensation and visual appeal.
An unseen energy is felt while having an eye contact with his paintings. The alluring female images reflecting again and again on the canvas create a melody of its own. The crystalline geometrical shapes give a new angle to his work. He apply vivacious colours in his own and well balanced with the composition. Each painting has a detail composition harmonious to the reflections and refractions of his thoughts.
[email protected]
Copyright Business Recorder, 2017