Artistic Troubadours

A painting by Farzana Ahmed.

Farzana Ahmed and Syed Zahid Iqbal are both students of Faculty of Fine Arts, Dhaka University. Recently the duo travelled to Spain, where nature cast a spell on them, especially the trees and houses. The blue mountains in the backdrop also inspired them to paint sketches, and do murals.
“Poppy Flower”, a watercolour by Farzana Ahmed, is a purple, brown, red and blue creation, with a lot of grey in it. Splashes of orange and brown peep through. It speaks for the artist's flair and imagination. Her “Can Serrate”, another watercolour has orange, yellow and red leaves of trees at the back. The forefront contains a coniferous slender tree, a Christmas tree in the front garden of white washed house with red gabled roof of red tiles.
Farzana's “Monserrat” is another gorgeous dark creation of a row of trees with shade of emerald for the leaves. The piling of the high cliffs at the back of the painting is done with a purple tone.
Syed Zahid Iqbal's “Memory of Spain” carries smudges of colours of earthy tones, of shades of brown and black. Grey and white are found in abundance in this abstract piece. Zahid Iqbal has painted more landscape in the form of “Blue Mountain”. This again appears like some abstraction, with colours of nature mingled with a mass of coal-black. His mixed media, “Nature of Spain” is a subtle combination of all the colours on the palette. There is emerald, ruby, jet-black, odalisque white and ever so many tints.
Art, being a journey, is a cleansing method, says Javed Jalil, the well-known local critic, who is also a writer and a teacher of art. In it, he says, one finds comfort, the will to create and exist in this brutal world. The contemporary art scene makes an artist a virtual machine of seeking ideas, when a private individual or being is absent. The idea of an artist is a collective treat of wonderment, and collaboration. It is a union that becomes a myth. Farzana and Zahid have found themselves in union with the spectrum of wonderment. They are like artistic troubadours. They make the story of the journey merge with the spirit.
Both artists went to Spain -- the Can Serrate Art Centre in Barcelona -- to make a union between relationship of people and art. The joie de vivre of the artists is infectious. Painting is a celebration of movement, as the French Impressionist painter, Matisse had put it. This is to make us contemplate, relax, and enjoy the blessings of life.
The artists have innovative ways of exploring the beauty of the reality. Their paintings are a reminder of their homeland, as in “The Blue Mountain”. In it one finds a union of Bangladeshi and Catalonian emotions -- in which their personal styles has been infused.
The paintings of the two artists are emotional and vigorous. They appear to emerge from the heart. The journey, at times, appears like the French painter Cezanne's search for Mont Saint Victoire -- where the soul was alone and in search of human intimacy.
Farzana and Zahid have exhibited in Europe, Japan, Nepal, Spain and many other countries.