Sumbal is a visual artist from Peshawar based in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Inspired by her surroundings, she creates imaginary spaces filled with color and expression, blending intuitive painting with personal documentation.
Notes on Intuition & mistakes
Looking back, I’ve learned that I make mistakes. A LOT of them. I basically can’t function unless I mess up and then fix it.
What helps you get into the headspace to work, especially considering your process is intuitive and often unfolds as you go?
For me the hardest part is starting. My intuition starts flowing the moment my qalam touches the wasli. What helps the most is me making sure my space to work is cute. I like having pictures around me, I like to have my notebook and a good YouTube video to watch in the background.
What do you feel has influenced or shaped your intuition the most over time?
My environment has shaped me the most over time. I’m an observer. Which is why I hate staying inside. I just want to be in an open space, with no limits. It fuels my intuition.
Emotions also play a big role in shaping my intuition. I like to believe I’m an empath, as I pick people’s emotions very quickly and feel them very deeply. And those emotions show up in my work in the form of colors, which I let my intuition pick for me.
When intuition isn’t flowing, how do you usually stay with the work?
I don’t force my work. I usually step away and give myself a break because intuition isn’t something that you can force or manipulate. A good break often sets things straight for me. And if I don’t take it, I start winging everything which leads to my work not resonating with me.
What aspects of your environment tend to come up, consciously or unconsciously, in your work?
Leaves, walls, animals.
When you look back at your work, what has an intuitive way of working taught you about yourself as an artist?
Looking back, I’ve learned that I make mistakes. A LOT of them. I basically can’t function unless I mess up and then fix it. Since I don’t preplan, I’ve seen myself apply a color and then completely remove it the next day. It’s very inconvenient and it’s a lot of work fixing your mistakes but it makes me feel so confident. I’ve heard people tell me ‘why can’t you just DECIDE your color scheme beforehand and save yourself the time of redoing it 2-3 times?’
But it just gives me so much peace knowing it’s okay to mess up because I’m human. And that mistakes are not the end of the world. It allows me to not be so hard on myself.
If you could live inside one of your paintings, which one would it be, and why?
This one. Looking at it takes me back to the exact moment I was experiencing it. This scene to me, is a representation of how transparent the day felt.
It felt like I was absorbing all the warmth in the whole world.
