Starting out our Roving Eye Spotlight series with Babar Moghal, a young artist and graphic designer from Karachi, Pakistan couldn’t have been a better idea. With a uniqueness and depth hitherto not previously seen in many young artists around the country, Mr Moghal’s work is simultaneously beautiful and breath taking. His subjects varied and wide ranging.
Mr Moghal’s work has been used throughout the first issue of The Missing Slate, serving as the backdrop to articles, poems and short stories. Below, he answers our questions on just what it is that makes him tick.
Were you always interested in painting?
Yes. I wasn’t very bright in school and the only thing that really kept me going were the diagrams required for different subjects. I loved illustrating and experimented and painted with watercolors in my free time. There wasn’t such a reliance on computers, Cable TV, or the Internet back then so there was loads of time to kill with paints. After school, I enrolled at the Karachi School of Arts and Graphic Design and truly found my center.
Your work is so uniquely fascinating. Have you ever considered exhibiting outside of Pakistan?
Thank you. Unfortunately, it isn’t as dependen on my personal preference as it is on the galleries’ choices for display. But thank God for the Internet and virtual galleries; it has helped open up my art to the masses.
We serve as a testatment to that. We found you through deviantArt!
Yes.
Last question: Where do you draw your inspiration from and are there/have there been any artists you seek inspiration from?
Music has always been my primary source of inspiration from the very beginning, to be honest. When I first started exhibiting my work, I illustrated psychadellic music and though I still listen to music when I paint, now it’s more to turn off the noise inside and around me.
But, there is a long list of artists I sought and continue to seek inspiration from. First and foremost is the late Zahin Ahmed, who was a teacher in KSA (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) and a master watercolorist, whose work I used to imitate. But I’ve always loved theatrics and mystery and old masters like Arnold Boecklin, Caspar David Friedrich and Magritte.
