Illustrator Michelle Farooqi exhibits landscape paintings in Lahore

An impressive exhibition of pastel landscapes titled ‘A Walk in the Park’ by Michelle Farooqi opened at Alhamra Art Gallery, The Mall, on Monday. The exhibition will continue till Feb 5.

Michelle Farooqi’s technique and expression has drawn comparisons with the masters of the landscape genre.

Noted art critic Quddus Mirza in his review of the show said, “Landscape painting has remained a popular art form in various cultures, a blessing for its practitioners because it is not viewed in its formal and pictorial context but often with a romantic fervour.

This aspect presents a problem for painters, but there have been examples of artists (the French impressionists, and Khalid Iqbal in our context) who have focused on the essence of nature and portrayed it by concentrating on multiple ideas — ranging from light, colour, and time to atmosphere—or combing them all.

In the works of Michelle Farooqi, one finds a similar approach towards nature. Her landscapes in her solo exhibition reveal the artist’s keen eye in recording details and capturing the atmosphere in different seasons and locations.

Michelle Farooqi was born in Quetta and grew up in Karachi. As a child, her natural love for drawing was fostered by her mother. In 1994, she emigrated to Canada with her husband, author and novelist Musharraf Ali Farooqi, where she lived for 15 years before returning to Pakistan.

In Canada, Michelle studied at the Ontario College of Art and Design University. She has shown her work in Toronto and Karachi. This is her first solo show in Lahore.

The exhibition showcased 18 works depicting the mother nature.

The artist in her statement about her work says, “Seeking to immerse myself in nature, I have walked through city parks, photographing the trails, the birds, the majestic trees but I have always been on the outside looking in, now in painting the pathways I once took, I am inside, looking out”.

Published in Dawn, February 2nd, 2016