LAHORE: Under the shade of a roadside tree next to a four-lane highway that leads to Lahore’s international airport, artist Shoukat Ali, 40, is hard at work next to a portrait of the UAE’s Late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan, oblivious to the roar of rush hour traffic.
Ali, the son of a milk-man, has been sitting under the same tree for the last five years he said, and manages to attract roughly ten to twenty customers a month, who stop and commission their portraits with the artist.
“I don’t know who he is, but he helps me bring in customers,” Ali said, pointing to the oil painting of the late ruler of UAE and adds, “He’s lucky for me.”
Next to it, there is a pencil sketch of a smiling Maryam Nawaz, a recognizable face in the country, and daughter of ex-Pakistani Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif.
“I know he is a King,” Ali said, and beamed. “I like his face.”
Lahore-based street artist Shoukat Ali in his usual spot by the side of a busy city road with his oil painting of Sheikh Zayed in Lahore, on Sept. 7, 2019. (AN photo)
Ali dropped out of school in grade six, and began pursuing his hobby of making portraits, cutting out pictures of people from newspapers and practicing on any scrap of paper he could find. Eventually, he started charging for his services and even trained for some years with a mentor in Lahore’s Lakshmi Chowk, a part of the city’s old quarter, once considered the heart of its architectural and food legacies.
Now, working with a thick black pencil sharpened down to less than half its size, Ali says he makes just enough to get by. One portrait usually goes for Rs. 2,000 ($13), and coupled with a few tuitions to art students living nearby, his work brings in on average Rs. 30,000 a month ($193).
Still, he insists, life is good.
“I’m happy,” he said. “I don’t have to pay any rent here, or electricity bills.”
A pencil sketch of Maryam Nawaz by artist Shoukat Ali, among the side of a busy main road in Lahore, on Sept. 7, 2019. (AN photo)
Nearby, on an electricity pole which serves as his only advertising medium, his name and phone number are written in a scrawl under the word “Arts.”
“What’s his name?” he asked, pointing to his prized portrait of Sheikh Zayed and then repeated it twice to remember over the relentless rumble of speeding cars.
Then, picking up a single cigarette from the wobbly easel in one hand, he put his pencil to paper and got right back to work.
