Ethereal on canvas

What will attract anyone to her many canvasses is their mystical quality where visual art is combined with an ethereal meaning to portray a painting of a different flavour.

The artist is Tauseef Mohammed Ali Al Mulla, a resident of Sharjah for the last 23 years, whose numerous paintings will go on display at the Ladies Coffee Shop, Wafi Mall, for the month of December.

She said, "I started working with pastels, then shifted to water colour, acrylics and oil. I have experienced different styles and now I am doing calligraphy in abstract forms, collograph and etching about oriental architecture."

Born into a family of artists, Tauseef took keen interest in art right from a young age and went in for formal training, attending several courses to improve upon her familiarity with the paint and palette.

What was it that made her shift mediums? She explained, "One must be willing to change in order to learn something new and art is such a vast field that you start learning from the moment you pick up a paint or a brush."

With a string of exhibitions to her credit, a recent one at the Book Mall in Sharjah, Tauseef gets personal satisfaction from showing her work to others, "and if people are buying my work, then it is very rewarding," she adds.

Not a born artist, she had always nurtured the ambition of becoming one. She had earlier treated it as a passion but now has made it a profession.

How does she incorporate South Asian and Arab style so easily? Tauseef explains, "Every place has its own charm and character, flair and flamboyance. While South Asian art ranges from the abstract to the realistic, Arab art emphasises upon cultural heritage."

She feels lucky enough to live in a country which is rich in culture and where a lot of pain is taken to preserve it. "One gets a lot of incentive and encouragement from viewing the work on display at various exhibitions," she says.
"The coming generation of Arab women are very much art-conscious and with patience and preseverance one can definitely improve and stand out in the art scene here," she conncludes.