LAHORE: Pride of Performance recipient Shahid Jalal showcased his latest series of paintings at his solo show titled Flower Carpets of Lahore. The show opened at the Ejaz Art Gallery, Lahore and will continue until Thursday. Speaking about his inspiration and work, Shahid Jalal said, “It is about the flower carpets of Lahore which were planted twice a year. I have been painting this theme for the past five years at various times. It is a total departure from what I used to do under my mentor Khalid Iqbal’s guidance. This exhibition is important to me because for the first time in my career, I have chosen to use photographs as the source of reference for my paintings instead of working at the spot. The response for this exhibition has been really good in Lahore and I am expecting the same from Karachi.” Jalal’s dynamic art reflects his prowess of simplifying complex designs and translating the best of nature on both large and medium-sized canvases. Known to be a “Plein Air” artist – with most of his canvases painted at the spot – Jalal restricted himself to the studio for the first time in his career to achieve the desired result on his chosen canvases. The showstoppers of this exhibition were larger-than-life collages of flowers arranged as carpets. It incorporated sketches of individual flowers – especially chrysanthemums and cockscombs -from various gardens of Lahore. Each painting of this masterpiece was sold individually. The show was attended by some of the leading names of the art fraternity including Salima Hashmi, Saeed Akhtar, RM Naeem, Nazish Attaullah, Tania Sohail, Rahat Naveed and young artists such as Irfan Hassan, Ali Kazim and Maria Khan. Flower Carpets of Lahore will be travelling to the Artscene Gallery, Karachi on March 15.