The journey of Pakistani calligrapher Nadia Rehman

Gulf News

Ustaad Bashir Ahmad the ustaad of miniature paintings worked really hard on me to make my art look what it is today. Daily headlines from the UAE and around the world brought to you by Gulf News. See more at: http://gulfnews.com/videos

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00:00My original ustad, Ustad Bashir, the ustad of miniatures, he's the one who's taught me

00:16since I was a child.

00:17You know, whether it was personal, because I knew him since I was a child, I've done

00:21a lot of private classes, which is an apprentice of a ustad, where they sit together and he

00:25gives you his work to do and he teaches you things which they don't teach normal students.

00:31So I think he is the one who is the person who actually made my art look the way it does

00:38today and, you know, he really made me work very, very hard, 16 hours a day sometimes.

00:44Sometimes he used to push me, everything.

00:46And then on top of that, my family.

00:48My mother saw that I love art and she saw that I'm also very good at painting and I

00:53had always, even when I was a child, my painting and thing was never of a child, it was always

00:58an adult.

01:00And so she took me all over the world, she used to make me see museums, she used to pursue,

01:05she used to give me a lot of paints.

01:07And then in school also they told them that, you know, she's very good.

01:10My art is basically all about Islamic calligraphy, but rotated in a slightly modern way, but

01:17also maintaining the old school, the way I was taught how to write it, maintaining that,

01:21but with a touch of modern.

01:22And yet also at the same time I'm trying, like, I'm trying that a lot of the art should

01:27be readable, because a lot of people have a problem, they say calligraphy is not readable,

01:32what does it say?

01:33So basically that's what I do, that it should be readable, yet modern, yet also it should

01:39have the old school, like it looks like a proper painting, not like something somebody

01:42just did in one day and they just gave it to them.

01:45I was the first person to start Arabic calligraphy classes in Dubai, at Dubai Community Art Center.

01:51Nothing like that ever existed, in fact to a point that even the pens, the bamboo pens

01:56and the kalam that we write with had to be flown in from Pakistan by me.

02:01And you know, the person who makes the pens, I had specially got boxes and inks made for

02:07my students, specially packeted from Pakistan, so that that's the material that they used

02:12to use.

02:13And slowly, slowly people started to get to know about my classes.

02:16And I think by now I have taught every nationality of the world, including royal families of

02:21different countries.

02:23Many people have sent their children to me, many big families in the Gulf have sent their

02:28children to me.

02:29I have worked for movie set, you know in the movie sets, royal family bought my paintings,

02:34I taught them, I taught many other artists, I did a lot of work for, for example, Gucci,

02:40Louis Vuitton, you know.

02:42So slowly, slowly, you know, people's interiors, ceramics, a lot of hotels.

02:48So that's how my name came about.

02:51If you want to do something, whether it's art or anything that they're pursuing, and

02:55specially art, then you have to work very hard.

02:58But for sure, they should follow what their heart tells them.

03:02If they want to be a calligrapher, they should be a calligrapher.

03:05If they want to be a miniature artist, if they want to be a sculptor, you know, they

03:08should follow that.

03:11But before following this art, one thing I would advise the youth is they should have

03:15a degree.

03:17You know, whether it's an art degree or any kind of degree that they have that they think

03:21they're pursuing, in that it's very vital in this day and age, they have a proper degree

03:25in it.

03:26You know, because if you have a degree, then it'll take you a long way, you can do a lot

03:30with it.

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