Ajab Khan
Fabrics rich in colour emerging from dark boiling liquid in dyer’s cauldron have been his first fascinating exposure to colours that made a strong impact on his artistic expression. A self-taught painter, Ajab Khan, was born to a working class family which migrated to Dera Ismail Khan from India. Colouring the black and white pictures from the family album by applying thin layers of paint on them made from fabric dyeing pigments was his favourite activity during his childhood. Noticing his keen interest in colours and talent to draw, his father would buy him coloured pencils to play with. The local workshops of commercial signboard painters and wall-chalking artisans served him as institutions to get familiar with the fundamentals of calligraphy and painting.