Landscape Painting
Circumstances and environment can nurture a love for nature that is both intimate and essential. Landscape painting is an expression of this fascination and this intimacy with nature.As far as form is concerned, painting landscapes can begin with a copying of nature but copying is nothing more than an initial framework that makes it possible to express the intensity within the artist. Very soon the artist moves from mere copying to striving for an internal harmony on canvas that corresponds to the artist’s compulsion to create beauty and the painting acquires a life of its own.Depending on moments, light and colors, the artist is in awe and wonderment before the vision a wonderment that can become a complete immersion, a subjective joy. But capturing this vision on canvas is a long, often painful and inevitably unsuccessful endeavor, for never can the “coming together” of the artist’s perception and the artist’s aspiration be achieved.While painting a landscape the artist moves from hope to despair, to hope again and then to a sense of failure but with the lure of success in the next endeavor … and so, it goes on …Shahla Rafi
Artistic Career
Landscape & Still Life Paintings (Collective Exhibitions)
Salon des Artistes Français: Paris 1991
Salon Arts Inter: Aix-en-Provence 1991
Salon de l’Association Artistique: Monthléry 1991
Salon des Artistes Français: Paris 1992
Salon Arts Inter: Arles 1992
Salon Arts Inter: Marseille 1992
Salon de l’Union des Artistes de la Vallée de Chevreuse: Bures-sur-Yvette 1992
Mondial Art Salon/Club Européen des Artistes: Avignon 1993
Salon de l’Union des Artistes de la vallée de Cheveuses: Bures-sur-Yvette 1993
Printemps de la Peinture: Versailles 1994
Salon de l’Union des Artistes de la vallée de Cheveuses: Bures-sur-Yvette 1994
Salon Violet: Paris 1994
Exposition, Galerie Everarts: Paris 1994
Exposition, Institut des Langues et des Civilisations Orientale: Paris 1997
Exposition, Ismaili Centre: London 1998 (Individual Exhibition)
Exposition, Arts Council: Islamabad, Pakistan 1999
Exposition, Ambassade du Pakistan: Paris 2000
Exposition, Galerie Jardin: Paris 2001
Gallery 6: Islamabad, Pakistan: August 2010 "Movements in Silence”
Gallery 6: Islamabad, Pakistan: March 2011 "Eminent Artists of Pakistan”
Gallery 6: Islamabad, Pakistan: January 2012 “66 Statements”
Gallery 6: Islamabad, Pakistan: October 2016 "Climate Change and Art – A Practitioners’ Retreat"
Gallery 6: Islamabad, Pakistan: April 2017 “Scapes of Pakistan”
PNCA: Islamabad Pakistan: August 2017“From Takht Bhai to Potohar”
And other Exihibtions in Pakistan since 2017