Syed Ali
For hardcore art
lovers, accepting the fact that a self-taught artist has fresh ideas and
original concepts to offer is a bit difficult to accept, but one look at this
artist's work fills up the harshest of critics with words of praise and pushes
them to ponder ‘Does eminence in the
world of art comes only with formal training?’ . Arif knew he was no
Hussain, but he also believed he could work hard and strive to be one. It was a
chance meeting with a dear friend who happened to be a student of Fine Arts,
that made Arif finally think about a future in the art scene and after
graduation, he decided to devote time to fine tune his talent and polish his
skills.
Arif's style does
not include definite eyes and mouth. The positioning of the limbs, angle of the
neck and tilting of the head in a certain way, gave Arif's men an iconic style.
While he painted a lot using water based colours, he wanted to explore the
limitless possibilities of using oils and so he began his journey of
elucidating his thoughts on canvas through this tried-and-tested yet very
tricky medium. Gradually, he went on to acrylic paints, a medium he uses
extensively now. Inspiration knows no bounds and Arif's first few paintings
were highly inspired by people and entities closer to his heart ‘his mother, his faith Islam and rural
India’
Quite interestingly,
one of his first oil works that was picked up by a buyer was a painting titled
'Fatima', his personal favourite as the woman in the painting was none other
than his mother. In fact, Arif found an old almost tattered album of his family
with vintage pictures of his parents and her mother's close friends and it was
this album that proved to be a source of inspiration for few of his earlier art
works. The drape of an almost sheer dupatta around the body, covering her head,
her pearl necklace, solitaire earrings and a vase full of fresh booming roses
resting on a checkered table, brings a feeling of nostalgia, almost as if
'Fatima' was painted in the 18th century.
He was now able to
showcase his work to a larger, diverse section of buyers across the globe and
what once seemed impossible soon started to materialize into reality.
Gradually, as he gained eminence, galleries from various cities started
approaching him for solo as well as group shows. Over the course of
establishing himself in the world of art, Arif has touched many subjects
including Indian Mythology.
