My Story

This is the story of a girl who loved sketching, paint and colour to her becoming a doctor and researcher, eventually returning to her true calling. That girl is me. I live and work in Faisalabad, a city in the Central Punjab region of Pakistan. My paintings carry joy, wonder & gratitude, feelings ground in a childhood spent chasing kites and playing cricket with my brothers on scorching summer days, shelling and eating peanuts while gathering round a log fire built by my grandfather on chilly winter evenings, always surrounded by flowers & colour, greeted by fireflies on our evening walks. Those days were full of hope and magic when anything seemed possible. In a world overshadowed by violence and brutality I choose to paint hope for losing hope is not an option. For hope must live.

My Process

It is all in the process. From the moment I put down the first brushstroke the process becomes something of a dialogue between myself and the work in progress. For me it is the process, rather than the end result, that makes painting an act of joy and fulfillment. I am a self-taught contemporary abstract artist working in mixed media. I work with acrylic paint and collage papers that I develop myself using leftover paint, mono printing and hand-carved rubber stamps. I begin a painting with no predetermined outcome in mind. What follows is an exploration of the unknown, going down rabbit holes, taking chances, chasing what ifs. I work in layers, putting down paint and paper, making marks, covering and revealing. I love the contrast between chaos and calm, noise and silence, areas of layered, vibrant color, pattern and fervent mark making adjacent to calm and quiet spaces. Reaching a balance may take days, weeks or months until we both are happy; the painting and me.