Mizanur Rahim, a teacher ol Fine Arts Chittagong, recently held an exhibition of his delicate pastel landscapes at "Divine Arts gallery. The colours and strokes were subtle, soft, and the works were far from the world of modern complexities and industrialisation.

In one of Rahim's creations one found a woman and a child by the river side, done in soft gentle strokes but with dark hues — blue and red. At the back was an Impression of a thatched brown hut. He had brought in the background landscape with trees, bushes and men working In the water itself. The effect Was Impressionistic

In another piece, the artist had shown the riverside once again, but here he had brought in the mountains in green, with trees growing right on to the river banks. The green, blue and purple merged with the white. People were shown In coloured impressions of small fine strokes in red.

In the next entry the artist had depicted some people Inside a fenced area, catching fish or prawns. They were done in a lyrical fashion in brown, yellow and green. This as just was sentimental as the rest of the oilier pieces.

In yet another entry, the artist had delineated green tree leaves, with the water nearby tn blue and brown land with the most delicate touches of pastel. This brought In the freshness of the morning in a poetic and pristine manner

One found tall trees In another creation, with more giarit trees at the back Smudges of red and blue brought in human beings in the glorification of nature. Despite the economic strokes, nature was shown in details of green, brown and grey, as In most of the artist's works. The white sky contrasted well with the main colours of nature.

A clump of Went frees *th barft.Wrahdhes and leaves was found In another landscape. The artist had combined blues, greens, with soft pinks. In frpnt he had depicted the blue of the water. In the backdrop were a few people sitting down, working and discussing, while nature

-

surrounded and protected them.

In another pieee some fishermen were brought in again. In the next pastel were boats in the river The sails were beautifully coloured In gentle brown and blue. The riverside was de plcted with deep green of the surrounding foliage and the blue and white sky in the backdrop.

Clumps of trees were found on a hillock In another pastel creation. It had a couple sitting down and the details of their facial features and clothes were clearly depicted. This is despite the light fantastic touch of the artist. The hillocks at the back had been done with variations of blue, green and brown.

People were depicted at work in another piece lb the hillocks. The men and women were shown as black, red and blue, while the artist had depicted the hillocks in black and red. with thq trees in the usual deep green, with touches of yellow. The sky had been left pale as in most of the works.

Earlier Rahim had done a lot of modern paintings. In the latest show he had turned to Impressionism and simplification. He explained that he had worked In different media, while he had specialised in lithography from Belgium. The artist said that he had felt a sudden urge to go out into nature and capture it. In doing his work he was influenced by romanticism, without having any particular initial aim to hold an exhibition.

Talking about the standard of art in Bangladesh. Rahim said that the language of art was universal and that contemporary art all over the world was similar. He specially lauded the young Bangladeshi artists living and working "abroad/He himself specialized in graphic arts' and Wad praises for Rafiqtin Nabi, Mahmudul Haq and Munlrul Islam.

Rahim has had his exhibitions In India. China. Korea. Malaysia. Norway. Belgium. Poland and Yugoslavia.