Five flamboyant painters

Improvisation-4 by Arif Al Karim Bhuiyan

Md Wahiduzzaman had brought lines, circles, semicircles and different forms in his work, in black against white and blue. "I believe the world is occupying a different space. The series reflect the realism that we see around us. Apart from this, as we see in the tree, the river, the house and the garden, there is the element of spiritualism, which I've heard about but have not seen, and this too I want to capture and show," says Wahid.

One of his paintings, acrylic on paper, brings what appears to be the letter 'A' done in black, with splashes in silver and gold. Another brings three bars which represent three steps leading up to spirituality which is symbolised in the disc of copper colour at the back. "As an artist I'm making a journey through life. I may not be able to communicate with all in my journey. Thus I don't expect everybody to immediately understand or like my work," says Wahid. Like all the other artists in his group, he has done a five- year diploma from BAFA (Wiseghat). He has other interests too like film-making and technology engineering. He has won nine awards

Arif Al Karim Bhuiyan had presented surrealistic landscape on his canvas. He has brought in the domes of mosques along with the sky with its differently heavenly bodies. On another canvas he has tried to represent time and has brought in huge bells that chime in the time. He has brought in haystacks, brick fields, and green and yellow meadow. "I have minimised the shapes and colours," Arif says. Another canvas showed a man flying a kite along with other elements of the nature such as sea shells, fishnet, boats and the sun. He has taken part in 11 exhibitions and has won a first prize in photography.

Nusrat Jahan Nazlee had done many impressive still life of vases containing flowers. They may not be new in conception, but the Impressionistic representation was fresh and impressive. One painting was entirely blue and pristine white, except the delicate flowers which were in soft pink. There were four more such creations with ecstatic splashes of white, orange and pink. She has an award from Washington DC.

Uttam Kumar Roy believes that his painting is the "simplest way to express my emotions, feelings, desires and love." His paintings contained the images of an airmail envelope, a film-roll, a chain, a clock with its huge hands. All these images were linked together with ropes and wires. He has won 15 awards from USA, Canada and Bangladesh.

Syed Mohammed Shamim thinks of nature almost like poetry, using few colours and strokes just as one uses few words in a poem. He worked mostly on the theme of peace. Many of his paintings were splashes of red, green, yellow mixed with black and white. He has won a gold medal for his metal work, and has taken part in eight joint ventures, apart from two of his solos.