Expressions in water colour

Another painting brought in two periods in a person's life. The artist wishes to say that from outward appearances, from the surface, all appears well but in reality life has painful turns. The lower portion was the breast of a middle aged individual but the upper section that of a younger woman. The next painting had an owl, which is called both "lakkhi" and "bhutum pencha", and its wings tended to darken the earth at the back. This was in indigo, blue and green while the backdrop was in more deep blue.

In a series titled "Confined" the artist had brought in the subject of how women are forced to live and work within limited areas as dictated by men. In one painting he showed a group of huddled older women in white and the artist said at this point, "On the other hand if my wife dies I will not be expected to wear only white and live in such close confinement." In the second piece the man, in brown, was striding ahead while the woman, in red, was kept to the back. "Men are allowed in many fields while the woman cannot step into many," the artist comments. The colours in the painting were yellow, blue and red. In the first work of the series the women were shown as bundled in sacks and rolled away. The contours of the blue, purple and brown spoke of female forms while the background that held the forms was in red, brown and blue.

A drawing has a seated couple with a gold and red backdrop while the lines that denoted the figures were done with pen. In one of his "Nostalgia" series one found the kites of childhood with its free and happy days of games and laughter. The kites were in pink and indigo while the background was in gray and blue. Paper birds, boats and glass marbles were brought into another such painting. A kite and the winding wooden wheel that go with kite flying were brought in yet another creation which spoke of the unfettered days of childhood. A large dragonfly was included in the composition.

"From Nature" brought in flowers, leaves, branches and barks at Chittagong University campus in different seasons of the year. In one work we saw water in shades of blue with falling leaves on it. The trees were in indigo, orange and brown. In this series one found two birds done in brown, red and white, with the grass growing at the back in strands of emerald and flecked with orange and red. Another work, under the same title, brought in birds in flight seen between blue and red clusters of leaves. The birds were basically white, washed over with yellow and red. In another series the artist showed the growth of leaves and buds in a flowering plant.

Another somewhat complex painting was divided into four panels and placed one on top of another. Through these panels male and female figures appeared to be emerging and leaving. These represented the dreams of a woman.

"Nocturnal verse" brought in sex workers and events at night of which we are often unaware. A man was suggested as embracing a woman. The third painting in the series had a new born child being heartlessly tossed into a dustbin. Nearby a cat and an owl added to the eerie nocturnal atmosphere. "The birds and fossil" was another stirring creation which brought in the bones of fish next to a fish. The artist said, "In this I wished to show how people often say that they are doing something for society when actually the deeds are only to promote themselves."

Saiful changed from his beloved oil colour to water colour in the recent past when the smell of turpentine and linseed oil brought him headaches. He is an assistant professor at the Department of Fine Arts at Chittagong University, and has taken part in national and international exhibitions held at Dhaka. His works are included in private collections in USA, UK, France, India, Kuwait and Bangladesh. Apart from paintings, Saiful does wooden relief works.