An allegory of nature

Nasima Khanam Queenie is aptly described as a semi-abstract painter. Her work is also figurative and her works can be categorised according to the use of varied alien forms as well as detailed compositions of flora and plants. She superbly detects the varied aspects of foliage in her works. Illumination is a prominent feature in her prints and the artist generally prefers luminous and mystifying settings where human figures are also in focus. The exhibition also focuses on lost time when every being was in its natural space and going through the natural balanced cycle.
After a long hiatus, the painter's solo art exhibition titled “Return to Eden” is now on at Alliance Francaise de Dhaka in Dhanmondi.
Having studied Oriental Art at the Institute of Fine Arts (now Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Dhaka), her work is bound to have romantic and scenic overtones. Currently Queenie is trying to focus on wide-ranging themes like pre-historic elements, chronological aspects of human life, civilisation and more.
The painter began her career as a naturist, depicting serenity in the environment with its rich abundance of colours, light and shades. As themes she goes for seasonal changes, landscapes, lakes, cloudy sky, mysterious fog, joyful rainbow, blooming mustard fields, lush paddy fields in autumn, rainy days and seashores.
In Queenie's prints the rhythmic lines take on a real psychological experience. In the exhibition, she has chosen printmaking as media. Most of the works are done in relief print, which involves the etching of plastic wood with needle and thereafter getting a print by the use of ink and a pressure plate/roller. Some of these works are from a single plate while the prints are in different hues.
Queenie's prints process is usually lengthy and involves a gradual refinement of everything that creates a superb atmosphere. The overall image -- the closeness of tones among the green, the grey, the blue and the black -- resonates like a perfect composition.
Among the Western master painters, Rembrandt's light, Antoni Tapies' lines, Salvador Dali's surrealistic imagery, Jackson Pollock's vibrant colours and bold strokes inspire the artist. Queenie is comfortable working with any medium, be it oil, acrylic or watercolour. She feels that the colours and forms are meant to communicate. When light and shade harmonically blend in her works, they generate an artistic ecstasy. Her use of space brings a silent joy and contemplative ambience.
For Queenie, the best years of her training were at the School of Visual Art, Manhattan, New York (mid '80s), where John Foote, was then the chief designer of Vogue magazine, groomed her in basic design for the media. Having mastered the grammar of colours, tones and lines, Queenie could use the methods in her paintings.
In the series of prints at the exhibition, Queenie's complex compositions, textural strength, thickness of colours and variation are the main ingredients. A number of her nature-based prints look neat and tranquil as the works typically displays colours and their various layers. The colours are azure, red, black, white, yellow and emerald green.
The exhibition will continue till December 27.