KMC professor exhibits paintings.

PESHAWAR -- A two-day painting exhibition by Dr Ghulam Shabbier began here on Saturday with the visitors admiring the Khyber Medical College professor's works, which mostly depict life in the interior Peshawar city, especially its old architecture, streets and roads.

The exhibition of water colour paintings titled 'The Portrait of Memories' and organised by the Association of Physicians of Pakistani descent of North America at a local hotel will conclude today (Sunday).

As Dr Ghulam Shabbier, who was born in the interior city near Bazaar Kalan, is an admirer of celebrated poet Faiz Ahmad Faiz, his artworks carry the influence of Faiz's poetry.

A total of 34 paintings are displayed in five series three of which are related to Faiz's poetic work.

Most art pieces were so absorbing that several visitors, who have no longer been living in the interior city, turned nostalgic making them travel back in time.

The artist is a professor at the Peshawar's Khyber Medical College. He did his MBBS from KMC in 1985 and FCPS in 1991. He had a penchant for art even before becoming a medicine doctor.

'My work shares with the viewer the mood and atmosphere of the moment that touch my heart. I want to convey my emotions to others so that they feel the time, sight, sounds and smells of the daily events that nature bestows upon us,' he said. The paintings show different scenes of daily life in the interior city such as bright morning after overnight rain, a hazy afternoon or a nostalgic evening.

Apart from Faiz's poetry, he said he was fascinated by old architecture of cities, especially that of Peshawar, where he was born and raised.

'When travelling...