Home is where the heart is

Home is where the heart is – this is a saying the accuracy of which we see being proved so often every now and then.

One occasion where we see it coming true with pinpoint accuracy is a paintings exhibition at the Canvas Art Gallery in Clifton. The exhibition which opened on Tuesday runs up until July 13.

The artist, Durre Waseem, is a young graduate of the Punjab University Fine Arts Department, Lahore, who, actually belonging to Lahore, is now based in Corona, California, USA. 

However, none of her exhibits, which are semi-impressionistic oils-on-canvas in content, are reflective of her adopted country. All the 20 exhibits adorning the walls of the art gallery are a depiction of life and its pace in Lahore, Islamabad, Murree, and there’s one work depicting Karachi’s coastline.

She has, through her colouring technique, depicted the place in a manner whereby the viewer would feel transported to them. She is a lyrical colourist, indeed. There’s one titled ‘Fall Shadows’. Those of us who are familiar with autumn upcountry would surely remember the diffused, “reluctant” sunlight that marks the season. 

The shadows that she’s painted look so real and so symptomatic of autumn in that part of the country. It is the time of the year when summer is transiting into winter and has a glorious charm of all its own, something that Durre Waseem has so successfully conveyed in her work.

There’s another work, titled ‘Tollinton Fog’, pertaining to the famed Tollinton Market on Lahore’s Mall Road dating back to the era of British rule and patterned along British culinary lines, a nostalgic reminder of the colonial era.  It depicts the market on a foggy winter morning. It is a reflective trip back into time for those hailing from that part of the country.

Her paintings don’t deal with the avant-garde, modern, trendy subjects but highlight the rustic, wherein lies the charm of her works. They pertain to the life of the common folk in her original homeland. They are reflective of climatic and social conditions as they are in her land of origin.

There are two works, titled ‘Saidpur Goats’ and ‘Saidpur Cows’, livestock of a village, Saidpur, at the foot of the Margallas in the environs of Islamabad. Then there’s one titled, ‘Murree Night’, a highly accurate description of what Murree looks like after sundown with the happy-go-lucky holiday makers visible all over.

The best part of the exhibition is that it does not dabble in art forms which are just brain teasers and the viewer has to resort to mental acrobatics to figure out as to what the work is all about. Everything’s so clear.

The exhibition is a must-see for all art fans, especially those nostalgically inclined.