According to family sources, Fariel has been painting ever since she was in Holy Cross School and learned the basics of water colour from Masuma Khan's Art School at Alliance Francais. Hamidur Rahman, architect of the Shaheed Minar, is a granduncle and Kalam Mahmood, a very popular cover artist and illustrator of books of yesteryears, is an uncle, though she never had any lessons from either.

After completing both her SSC and HSC as well as O- and A-level studies with top grades in Bangladesh, Fariel left for the USA in 1994 to work on her Bachelors degree, majoring both in Physics and in Mathematics from MIT. But she also kept painting in her precious little spare time. Later, while a graduate student at Princeton, she started displaying her artwork at a professional level. In 2002, she was invited to display her childhood work at Papaink, the international children's art archive to encourage children to paint. Her shows include one in Greece in a gallery run by well-known art personality, and also two prestigious juried shows in Spain. She has also exhibited her work in numerous shows in Soho, one of the most artsy districts in the USA.

Her artwork has also been published in a number of magazines in the USA. She is featured as an elite artist on abs gallery, one of the most prominent online international galleries, curated by an Emmy award nominee visual artist. She has also displayed her digital art in New York, and has been accepted as a distinguished computer artist by the Museum of Computer Art.

Fariel's paintings display a wide range of bright colours, reflecting the contrasts in human expectations and desires. Many vivid colours coexist on the same canvas to make the pieces in the painting complementary to each other. Most of her images are derived forms of human figures or abstractions of dream sequences.

Fariel is also involved in a project of popularising Bangladeshi textile and has displayed fashion designs at the official San Francisco fashion week. She has spoken about her art and fashion designs in cable TV shows in Cambridge and Boston.