Rabi Khan, who has been doing digital painting for five years, had an exhibition of his work at the Alliance Francaise, Dhaka recently. He had studied computer graphics at Montreal. He worked with paintbrush in the pre-requisite course for graphic art, where he studied the philosophy of colours and model drawing. Like most other artists, he was fond of painting and drawing as a child.

"I have mainly dealt with different aspects of womanhood. When I began working for the exhibition, my wife was expecting, and she was the source of my inspiration. In the beginning I worked with the colour palette and the mouse. I didn't have a scanner at that time," Rabi says.

In an image of a woman we see gold, brown and red. Colours appear as if they emerge from a fountain and at the side is a golden blossom. The subject is done with variations of red and yet it is quite clear what the artist is dealing with. The Kiss brings in an embracing couple, with their faces, limbs and bodies merging with one another. There are shapes like curls and lines within. While the woman is in shades of brown the man is in orange and red. The background is in turquoise and jade. The Two, also introduces a hovering couple. At the outset one might

feel that one is facing some gliding lines, but on concentrating, one finds the romantic figures.

Sun-kissed is a female form that brings in trailing tresses, leaving the face to the viewer's imagination. The Horse is equally pulsating with joie de vivre despite the minimisation of lines and colours. Works like The Waterfall brings in abstract shapes.

The way in which the colours have been separated, creating powerful lines and shapes, would have been almost impossible by hand, as noted artist Syed Jehangir puts it. Rabi himself comments, "I try to incorporate a sense of reality. There are two distinctive types of paintings that I have created -- abstract art with geometrical figures, and colourful images with fluid impressions. In case of the former, my inspiration is futuristic figures while for the latter I was inspired by ripples on water and the effects of oil on water."

Rabi has had exhibitions in Canada and Japan. This is his first solo exhibition.