Mahmood’s canvas mesmerizes one with its flourishing nature and rejoicing colour, bursting with shades of green, yellow, orange, red and sometimes even greys. His pictorial language could be placed, within the matrix of abstract art. Mahmood’s landscapes are neither direct observation of visual reality like the paintings of Impressionist, nor conceptual like those of traditional miniature painters. They combine sensory information and childhood memory, intellect and emotion, while exploring the boundaries of colour, texture and light.
Artist’s Statement
As a child, I would translate my feelings into portraits, the visages expressing joy or sorrow, screaming with pain & anger or just smiling enigmatically, was an expression of my own inner turmoil and emotions. Thus my journey as an artist began quite early.
My father was the vice Principal of Jamia School, which was adjacent to the Department of Fine Arts, Jamia Millia Islamia. As a child I was deeply fascinated by nature. Jamia with its semi wild surroundings was an ideal playground for a young naturalist like me. I would spend hours in the forest gathering caterpillars and their pupae. I would take my collection back home and observe the eggs evolve into butterflies with all their splendid beauty. The fragile wet wings of the butterflies would harden upon emerging from the pupae and the butterfly would eventually fly off giving me immense joy. Later this childhood passion developed into a deep and abiding interest and I think metaphorically, art is also like a butterfly emerging from a pupa. My encounter with nature and its beauty, finds its way into my work. Eventually I graduated from the Department of Fine Arts with a Degree in Fine Arts.
