Shazia Rashid

Joel on Canvas by Shazia

My painted little characters are presented like the typical portrait paintings of old; quite still and ordinary – equalled only by the charming nervousness revealed within the peripheral ‘full stop’ eyes that stare blankly back”

A quote from artist Shazia Rashid, whose naive portraits of children have become one of ou rbest selling ranges since they were introduced to the art buying public back in February 2011.

The phrase we hear every day from our gallery visitors is ” They look just like my children/grandchildren”. Shazia has developed a wonderful way of using a detail, such as a daisy chain or a pair of spectacles as a focus for the personality of her subjects which enable the viewer to instantly “fill in the blanks” and imagine their own childen in the picture.

I found this difficult to understand at first, until last September when I saw her new publication “Joel” and there, staring back at me was my 10 year old brother – 50 years ago now.

Her work is published either on canvas as illustrated – or on paper – all of her available work can be seen at http://www.originalartshop.co.uk