Painting from the heart
I’m Faryal Ahmad, a UK-based contemporary abstract artist creating atmospheric landscapes and seascapes in mixed media acrylic.
My paintings are shaped by colour, texture, memory and imagination. Each work begins with a feeling or an image held in my mind, then changes as music, movement and the materials guide it across the canvas.
A change of direction
For several years I worked in fashion. After the sudden death of a colleague, I began to question my purpose and decided to follow the childhood dream I had set aside. In August 2007, I left fashion and began painting in a newly formed studio.
Only months later, rheumatoid arthritis left me unable to hold a brush. After nine demanding months of treatment, rest and patience, I returned to the studio with a new sense of gratitude. My first challenge was to paint a flower in precise detail—work that required a steady hand and strong grip. Completing it marked the beginning of a continuing journey: balancing the restrictions of the disease with the determination to keep creating.
Dreamscapes
After becoming Muslim in 2002, I wanted my art to reflect my faith and imagination without following the traditional geometric language often associated with Islamic art. Instead, I began combining my love of painting and colour with landscapes gathered from dreams and developed through intuition.
I call these works Dreamscapes. Although I studied art to some level, I am largely self-taught. My Pakistani heritage, faith and life experience all shape the way I see, while every finished painting remains an original and deeply personal expression.
For me, painting is about building a world in the mind and bringing it to life on canvas.