Seeking refuge in nature

It was interesting to find a painter dedicating all his canvases and paper to nature and making numerous paintings on one single theme. This was seen in AHM Bashirullah's works, recently at "La Galerie", Alliance Francaise, where viewers flocked to see the semi abstract and abstract works in myriad colours and shapes. This research-oriented artist has given a boldness and a reality to his paintings with a positive outlook. One of the admirable factors about the painter's efforts is that there a sense of serenity in all his works, no matter what the medium. He brings in impressions of flowering plants, singing birds and gently falling rain along with butterflies and even the beauty of old walls with their lichen covers. He has also protested against the phenomenon of pollution and the decimation of the rare species of flora and fauna on our planet. This has taken place only because he has a superb control over his use of paints, forms and liens. His play of light and shade is presented with scientific preplanning and consideration. The balance of shapes, sizes of forms and the choice of colours give a mature rendering to the rhythm of his compositions. This is to create more constructive thoughts among the onlookers who will surely move away from destruction and decimation that is taking a place all over the various countries, ranging all the way from the west to the east. Here is a retreat from the havoc and destruction that one reads about daily in the media and sees on channel TV and even in the local TV and radio.

Talking about the mediums that he had used and the elements that he had touched upon as regards nature, his one single theme of the exhibition, Bashir said," I've used water-colour and oil painting on paper and canvas. I've brought in flowers, leaves, water, land masses, and details of nature around, bringing in colour, form which I have simplified and put into a semi-abstract and abstract manner. The forms have been made minimal so that you see flowing and floating shapes of different colours and sizes."

In "Nature-8", water colour, Bashir has brought in the shapes on walls such as the lichen on the wall which has many colours and forms. The colours bring in the ruby-red of flowers, the golden hue of the sunshine, the green of the grass and leaves and the blue of the skies and the rivers and ponds. Bashir said, "When the sunshine comes there are many colours in this alone and I've used some of them in my water colour. As the sun rays falls on different elements of nature, different colours and forms emanate. He has I portrayed what he saw before him in the washes of indigo, spotted with vermilion, the washes of yellow-ochre merging with pale blue and other variations of emerald and jade green, along with amber and topaz splashes. The texture work like mosaic or collection of tinted sand is intriguing indeed. The colours do not symbolize anything and the apparent human forms have crept into the composition only accidentally.

"Someone viewing the shapes may take them for human beings, flowers or trees. I leave it all to their imagination," Bashir said, "In abstraction the colours and forms are to bring different feelings in various onlookers. As for my preoccupation with nature, as I walk and move around, look about I am confronted with nature all around me, even though I'm a city dweller. Earlier on, in my joint exhibits, I had used other subjects too but now I've abandoned portraits, landscapes, still life etc.-- after having graduated from the Fine Arts Institute in 1968 -- in this particular solo venture. Now I teacher at the Teacher's Training College and here I help the teachers to present educational maps, diagrams, charts etc. I teach the lecturers to sketch a bit so as to drive home the points as they are lecturing such as when they are giving a lecture on the geography of Bangladesh. I teach them to draw, for instance the trees, thatched huts and the boats of our country to simplify their lectures. Within the given framework of 45 minutes, a period of a class, I teach the young graduates to function properly with the help of symbols. I've been there for 14 years. Apart from that, I work in my own studio at Jhikatola."

In oil on canvas, "Nature -3", there is a lot of white in between the splurge of colours in variations of red, gold, indigo, beige and green coming from the top and bottom In the whitish space in between are motifs of flowers and "alpana " forms as well as in the bordering dark panels on top and bottom. The curling, swirling lines bring in branches of trees and flowers in the form of motifs as well as sunbursts and other simplified delineation of nature. Folk motifs have also entered in other forms such as swirls in the space in between which carry hints of green, pink, yellow, gray, indigo and even russet and gray. As for the dots and splashes of colours at the top and bottom, one can imagine what one wishes in them, which is exactly what the artist desires. "I haven't intentionally brought in living forms in my splashes of colours. When working the forms appeared on their own." The red, blue, orange, green, purple and beige in the right forefront balance well with the indigo patch to the left, and the falling forms in the background, in which one finds the colours of the birds of paradise, with bright turquoise pulsating with russet, gold and blood red, along with indigo and more pale hues. "I've tried to bring on to the canvas the rich hues that one confronts in Bangladesh, "Bashir said," I have not brought in flowers or trees on purpose but have used colours with which I've experimented with just as Rabindranath Tagore, in his older years, began doodling and then went into painting, when he said, 'Earlier, I saw flowering trees and singing birds, but now I do see them as such but as impressions of figures in nature.' Similarly in my works too some forms, which are an integral part of nature,might appear like living beings."

There is a balance of form in "in Nature-1" oil on canvas where one finds shades of brown and beige along with more such hues and forms mingling with green, gold, shades of pink and faded mauve, Bold splashes of white, beige and pale mauve from the centre and sides of the painting." I am alone when I'm sitting somewhere. There are forms of all shapes, sizes and colours around me. I've used a lot of white here to develop the brightness of the composition," Bashir said.

The water colour on paper, "Nature-7" there is a lot of detailed works in splashes and dots so that one gets the impact of a showering of rich gems in shades of red, brown, green and blue with flecks, squiggles, sweeps and circles that one finds totally mind-boggling as regards the playing with colours. Once can imagine opals, rubies, emeralds, agates, pearls and all the amethysts that one can find in the island of Sri Lanka, the home of precious stones. "I have not taken the colours or forms from anywhere: they simply crept into my work as I played with my brush on the paper. They came from my imagination and feelings: I felt that these shapes and colours would be suitable here or there, as you see them. You can even see the face, neck and eyes of a horse to the right if you look close enough," Bashir said.

One finds in "Nature-9" a lot of rectangles and triangles of green against more paler jade-colour, touched here and there with strokes of purple, beige, brown, black an lines and squiggles of simplified motifs and bars. This is an oil on canvas. Here the forms and figures that one can trace out, if one stands and lingers around the work, are Cubist in nature.

Another oil on canvas, "Fish-1", we see swimming fish in once again simplified shapes, with most of them clustering to the top, while many swim in various directions in their beautiful shades of beige, mauve, brown and gray. They are seen against blue, mauve and pink shades mingling with the white of the water and have minute texture work to lend interest to the composition.

Bashirullah has studied print-making with Monirul Islam and with "Somokal Shilpi Goshti". He has held over 20 group exhibits. His glorifying of nature in his solo exhibit is impressive indeed.