A rainbow of ‘mountain culture’ goes on display at PNCA

 Islamabad

A rainbow of ‘mountain culture’ put on display at the Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA) on Wednesday in connection with the 6thPakistan Mountain Festival, the annual flagship event of the Development Communications Network (Devcom-Pakistan) to commemorate International Mountain Day.

The opening of the students’ paintings exhibition was coupled with the closing ceremony of the festival.

The partners of the festival including Rawalpindi Arts Council, Institute of Environmental Sciences and Engineering (IESE), NUST, Gilgit-Batistan Youth Council of the Arid agricultural University, Pakistan National council of the Arts, CDA Training Academy, were recognised of their contribution and support.

As many as 34 oil-on-canvas paintings reflect the diversity of culture that our mountains represent. The young artists very skilfully highlighted the cultures from Hunza to Kalash, dancing men, traditional clothing and wooden work, the housing architecture, rich landscape and waterfalls and flowing natural streams.

All bright greens, different shades of blue, red and orange tones and right amount of the white colour make the paintings a real treat to watch.

The students have experimented different techniques and style to portray the theme. For some students impressionism has been the preferred choice while some participants also used the palette knife technique too.

The top five winners in each category, postgraduate and undergraduate, were awarded with the shields, certificates and painting material.

All the five winners in the postgraduate category were from Government Postgraduate College for Women, 6th Road, Satellite Town, Rawalpindi. They included Ayesha Sajjad, Aleena Azhar, Naila Mussarat, Shumaila, and Sadaf Hafeez.

In the undergraduate category, Nadia Batool of the National College of Arts Rawalpindi Campus, Madiha Usman of the Islamabad Model College for Girls (Postgraduate) F-7/2, Mahnoor Ali of Islamabad College for Girls F-6/2, Faryal Yazdanie of National College of Arts Rawalpindi Campus, Roobia Gulfaraz of Islamabad Model College for Girls (Postgraduate) F-7/2 grabbed the top positions, respectively.

One of the participants Marryam Mushatq said it was an opportunity to know the mountain issues and to paint the culture of our highlands.

Such kind of activities help students know the realities on ground and become aware of the different cultures too. Sara Khalid termed the live painting an opportunity to explore creativity on the spot. It helps in exploring the real potential.

Munir Ahmed said, “Mountain peoples have developed remarkable land-use systems, which are rich in globally significant biodiversity and have evolved over centuries thanks to the harmonious co-existence of communities with the environment.