Light it up

Dangling from a log in front of the door was a rusted and chipped black lantern. As we searched for things to paint, my older sister's gaze fell upon the ancient object, and an idea formed.

Having seen my experiments with truck art, she declared that that was what we (16 and 19) would do on the lantern.

Sometimes we painted simultaneously, other times we sat in our own time and worked away at the finer details.

Two different styles of painting emerged on the surface, and the object was no longer recognizable.

Painting and spraying a curved surface was no picnic, but the challenge increased our vigour, and the end result was well worth it.

Enlightenment

What do you do when you have stark white walls and nothing to decorate them with?

Not many people would say 'paint the light switches'.

But that is what I did. These colourful pieces, done in a traditional Pakistani style of painting, pop out. The truck art that adorns the exterior of vehicles in Karachi now brings brightness into the house.

 

The smoothness of the surface made it somewhat challenging to paint upon it, and much patience was needed to allow the switches time to dry before applying a second coat.
Though, the end result makes the labouring completely worth it!

Not really how I intended it to turn out...

...and by that I mean they were meant to be purely functional coasters, not brightly coloured decoration pieces.

(images are taken from the web and are only my reproductions of them)

Truck Art Takes Over

And so here is the art that adorns the exterior of vehicles in Karachi, put to canvases of paper, corkboard and wood.

A girl dances with 'ghungroos' around her ankles.