How I rediscover the joy of painting

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Story and artwork from Salahuddin Saeed

I have been fond of painting and drawing as long as I remember. My passion with art has started when I was at the final year of my school. Art was a compulsory subject in school except for the final year. The art teacher at the government school that I have attended did not help in making art as an appealing subject.

When I went to England to study engineering in 1973, I saw art in a new prospective. I was totally fascinated by the work of the master artist as I attended all the art galleries in London during my university days. Going to the museum was a real joy at the time. Entrance to the museums in London was free at those good old days. I attended evening life art classes and I have very pleasant memories of that period. This was a relief from the boring subject of engineering. I had to make a living, so I became an engineer.

Education helps in broadening one’s view. Combining the knowledge and the artistic sense, would expand the horizon of thinking. Engineers are expected to produce detailed technical drawing. The drawing includes showing the objects from three different elevations, show the hidden lines and section drawings. This is the first element of how to see things. when you draw, you do not only look at the outside shell, but you look through the object. in doing so, you could construct a three-dimensional object. I learned how to really see things. So, in a sense I learned the art of engineering through seeing things through the eyes of an artist.

Since I started my working career, I spent very little time in a painting. It has been many years since I have completed any paintings. I have not done any oil painting for over 4 decades. It is amazing how destructive the old excuse of “oh, I do not have the time to do what I love, because I am so busy doing things that I hate.”

I am now 67 years young. This is the time that you realise that there is so much to do and so little precious time. However, after retirement, I should have the time to do all the things that I wanted in life and enjoy it to the full extent.

My son who is 34 years old now, told me that he did not recall ever seeing me hold a brush let alone ever paint in his life. This was a wakeup call for me. It is amazing how our children do observe and tell us about things that we have been so oblivious to. So, I went back to the old stored artwork that I made once upon a time which appeared to be so long time ago. I really felt guilty when I realised the joy that I have missed in ignoring what I have loved most.

I never sold any of my artwork nor I do intend to do that ever. When I draw or paint, I would do that for personal satisfaction. I have never attended a formal art school and hence was never under pressure to meet any deadlines. This could be the main reason why in many cases I have many unfinished works.
I went through my storage and was surprised how few paintings I have completed.

You should like art to do a good job. Once you fall in love with art, there is no limitation to what you can do.
The attached photos are of work that I have done more than 40 year ago.

Your description of what the course can offer, summarizes all the things that I wanted to know about in the past. I keep wondering what I could have done if I had access to such a course 40 years ago and how it could have influenced my work and consequently changed that course of my life.

The insight that you have one might get from such a course could take the frustration out of trying to get a good artwork and could have changed painting to a more joyful experience.

Putting the past behind and looking forward to the future, I now have the time to really indulged in something that I truly love. The corona virus now gives a good incentive to make the best use of my time at home.