The people who love their country land and enlighten their dreams and thoughts, with the light derived from this attachment, always want to do something extra ordinary for their society.
Zahir-ud-din-Babar is basically a painter but his efforts branch off in so many directions that one does not know how to describe his orbit of activity. He has been working in graphic designing, oil paintings, water colors, pastels or woodcuts etc. Water color is his favorite medium. We see in his paintings he successfully creates an atmosphere of dream world, by using mauve color. He uses dull colors with sharp contrast of light and shadow; which creates a subtle effect.
Babar belongs to Lahore and has a very simple background. He has got this ability from his family. His Uncle was a calligraphist; this helps him to give strength and power to his line. Line has played a major role in his paintings. As, artist is inspired by a quotation, “Not a day, without line.”
In his paintings he shows his concentration more on line then colors. Classicists proffered line to portray the object, while Romanticists shape the image through colors.
He has done his graduation in Fine Arts from the Punjab University, where he majored in design. He admits that basically he is a painter. Babar has achieved on academic level, in water color in spite of his studies ending up in graphic designing. His colors are dull in contrast to the translucent effect of water color technique. He has been working in different mediums such as, water colors, oil colors, pastels, pan n ink etc; but his favorite medium is water color. In his paintings we find mostly his uses of paper with colors, which creates an imaginative impression. Probably this technique helps him to express himself. His paintings are in dull colors with sharp contrast of light and shadow. Most of his paintings are purple; this is his favorite color. Which led us to his dream world? As we can see in his painting, `EARLY MORNING MISTS SCENE `.He has painted this topic so many times. In which artist successfully creates a difference between foreground and background. These types of paintings have very soft and touchy effect. In most of his works we can see his desire to show changing moods of nature and atmosphere. As we see early morning mists scene, afternoons, evening shadows ad so on. Nature is his source of inspiration. He spent almost all of his grown up years in the Punjab; so it is natural his love for nature seen in his paintings. As in his landscapes and other compositions like in, `BASANT SCENE IN LAHORE`. Here we see the cloudy sky over the Badshahi Mosque; which is full of kites. The large red building of the mosque and the colorful kites give strength to the painting. In spite of this, perspective is still found. Another impressive work is, GOVERNMENT COLLEGE`S BUILDING`. This painting expresses his love for this institute. It takes six months to complete. This painting is spread over a canvass of 6/4.
On the occasion of the Golden Jubilee Celebration of Pakistan’s independence , Babar has put his share in the celebrations in a unique way by exhibiting his wood cut prints which have the STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE`, as a basic theme. Though prints are black and white yet they give a very vivid impression of the colorful reality, to the viewer, showing the excellence that Babar has in the field. He has truly proved himself to be an all-rounder in the field of art.
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