My interest in miniatures grew from a first visit to Pakistan in 1998 while an undergraduate student at VCA. In 2005 I decided to look into the possibility of studying the technique formally. Sabeen Raja, a miniaturist and 2005 UNESCO/Aschberg resident at Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne, recommended that I contact Salima Hashmi and BNU.
Salima was incredibly supportive and suggested that I teach as well as study, and so contribute to the artistic and academic life of the university. It was a good combination. The students at BNU come from a range of backgrounds and experiences. Most are Pakistani, though there are also many from South Asian countries including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka. With faculty from Canada, Germany and the UK, as well as established and emerging local artists, it is a rich cultural mix.Miniature painting is a tradition with a long and diverse history and a canon of work as exquisite as anything on the planet. It has absorbed and synthesised elements from Chinese art, Persian textiles and calligraphy, Hindu and Islamic mythology and the arts of the Italian Renaissance. More recently contemporary miniaturists have built on this tradition to produce works that reflect both the history of the medium and the modern world with all its energies and contradictions.
It is also a tradition that is rigorously taught from first principles. Students begin by practicing line work with fine squirrel hair brushes on handmade paper. They then copy from the masters, first in black or sepia and then with increasing levels of colour.The emphasis on copy work, hand-in-hand with the development of a personal language and visual symbology, means that contemporary miniature artists are uniquely poised in the contemporary art world as possessors of both an historical tradition and modern critical facility. It is also a pleasure to reproduce the great works of the past, to hold that conversation with artists long gone and find similarities in style and moments of connection.
Since then I have continued to make new works inspired by my experiences in Pakistan. In February 2010 some of these were exhibited in Perdesi at Alhamra Art Gallery Lahore. In October 2012 I intend to return to Pakistan to exhibit at Alhamra, continue the cycle of inspiration and print development, and to meet up with friends once more.
all images watercolour and gouache on wasli