Untrained Wisdom – Season 1 Ep. 10: Live Wedding Painter Najma Sharif

Shuva Rahim: The show notes for this episode include a link to my guest’s website and Instagram account. There is also a downloadable link of the transcript to this episode. Show notes from all previous episodes also include respective transcripts.

Shuva Rahim: Hello friends. My guest today is Najma Sharif. Najma I grew up in Bangladesh and Pakistan. She moved to Canada to pursue graduate work in 1975 and married a fellow graduate student from India in 1978. They settled in the Halifax, Nova Scotia area to raise their two daughters, who are now grown with families of their own in other parts of Canada, and where she as well as her husband became professors of economics at nearby universities. About three years ago, Najma retired from teaching to become a full time painter with a specialty of painting live at weddings all across Canada. All right. Great. Well, thank you, Najma Appi, And I'm calling Najma Appi because we're related. You are the first family member I have actually interviewed in this format. So before we get into that, I want to go into our opening question, which is how do you take care of yourself?

Najma Sharif: I try to eat properly, a little bit of exercise, walking treadmill. But more than that, when I paint I feel better. So you can say that that's my therapy.

Shuva Rahim: Okay. All right. That's good. So we're from Bangladesh and I called you Najma Appi because Appi is what you would call a female cousin. But we're not first cousins. Can you explain how we're related?

Najma Sharif: Your mom is my mother's cousin. So she's actually cousin once removed, right? So you are my twice-removed cousin.

Shuva Rahim: Okay. [laughter]

Najma Sharif: Your mother was so near in age to me that she was more of a friend, and we were friends from a really early childhood.

Shuva Rahim: It's really cool that I'm as close to you as I am. Even though the blood relationship doesn't feel close the emotional relationship feels close.

Najma Sharif: Yeah. Yeah.

Shuva Rahim: Alright. 'cause I've known you pretty much all my life.

Najma Sharif: I know I saw you from when you were a baby.

Shuva Rahim: [Laughter] All right. Well, let's start talking about your painting. So when did you begin painting? How old were you?

Najma Sharif: I think it really started when I was a teenager. I used to just doodle in my books in my class work, everywhere. And even my teachers knew when I was bored because I'd be doodling. And then slowly, slowly, I started to sketch more, even though we didn't have the proper art supplies. Then I used little children's paint box, with the one little brush and I used to draw and paint quite a lot. But as I grew up, it was not really encouraged that I pursue art because it wasn't supposed to be a career that a girl can do.

Shuva Rahim: Did you ever get in trouble for painting because you said your teachers would catch you doodling?

Najma Sharif: I didn't get in trouble with my teachers. They were pretty good to me. They knew I was not a bad student, but I got in trouble with my mother all the time. She really did not think that I should be drawing and painting, especially I like to draw human beings. I always drew faces and dancers and things like that. So she thought I should be learning to cook and sew and be marriageable. So art was really not encouraged in my parents' house, you can say.

Shuva Rahim: Was your art ever taken away from you if you were caught doing it?

Najma Sharif: Yeah, it was taken away from me for not doing other things, even though he has a child I always did well in school. So it wasn't that I wasn't studying, but it wasn't thought of as something that a girl from a conservative Muslim family would do. So that was the view they had. Shuva Rahim: How did you learn to paint?

Najma Sharif: I wish I knew how to answer that because I just did it. You know, I just used my own eyes to see where the shades are, what colors. So I just did it on my own. I was never taught by anybody until I came to Halifax. And then I met a really good artist, Jane Shaw, and I saw she was giving a workshop. So I went to her workshop and that's when I learned what type of paper to use, what paints to use, what brushes to use. She just let me paint what I wanted. She said, 'just paint away.' Material made such a difference: having good watercolor paper and brushes, my god. Brushes make huge difference. Then also I found out that there's a difference between student quality watercolors and artist quality. These things I never knew. I was painting from those little children's paint boxes and painting with poster colors. Poster paper, not even proper paper.

Shuva Rahim: But you wouldn't have known that.

Najma Sharif: I guess the more I paint, the more I evolved. And it also went through different phases, when I would be just doing blue, blue and magenta type of painting. And then there would be just a few strokes and just one eye. But then slowly, slowly as I grow older, it's becoming more colorful.

Shuva Rahim: So what kind of things did you paint when you started out?

Najma Sharif: I love doing faces, movements, and dancers. But I also did a lot of landscapes because that's what my parents would not look so badly upon, right?

Shuva Rahim: [ Laughter ]

Najma Sharif: Coconut trees. Palm trees. But then I got into painting flowers also because I love strong lines, again moving of lines. And when I painted flowers and the leaves, I got that freedom to let my brush go where it wants to go, let the colors go where it wants to go. So that's what I did in between, going from my little landscapes and just doodling on books I went through a phase of painting flowers. But then started on my figure drawings again because I took a class with the - again, these are all workshops - there was a well-known artist here. He used to do lots of nice figures. So for one week I attended his class with live models, just learning how to draw figures very quick, the models would be moving and I'd be doing it fast. So that also helped me to do the type of figures that I do.

Shuva Rahim: Now, before you got into weddings, when you would paint people or landscapes, would you be in front of those landscapes normally or in front of those people? Or would it be a mix of things?

Najma Sharif: There would be sometimes if I would be going with this artist that I told you, Jane Shaw, we'll go to a site that you remember, Peggy's Cove. So we would go there and we will all sit on the side and draw and paint. So then people would, of course, you know, go around you and look at you and all that. So, so that's one experience of people looking over your painting. But otherwise I did on my own. I did it at home. But again, I never had a real studio. I just painted wherever I could, like in the kitchen or the dining table - just wherever I could find a place, especially when the kids were growing up. I didn't want them to be getting into the things. That's why I started doing watercolors because that would dry fast; that I could put away things.

Shuva Rahim: Did you always work with watercolor?

Najma Sharif: I did. In between I did do some oil paintings. But again, because I just want to finish it fast. Right. Impatient person. And oils don't let me do that.

Shuva Rahim: OK.

Najma Sharif: And that's why you can see that, you know, how live art helps me to do that because I just finished it in one night. I'm not going to do it the next day.

Shuva Rahim: Right. Now you said earlier that painting is kind of like your therapy.

Najma Sharif: Is it.

Shuva Rahim: Is there anything else that you get out of painting besides just how your mental sanity? Najma Sharif: Oh, it helps me to forget things. Just right now, with this pandemic cannot go out and all that. When I'm painting, I'm in a different world. So I don't think of those things. Somebody's illness. I'm always thinking if I'm awake, you know, that worries me. But when I paint, I don't think of that.

Shuva Rahim: It's an escape.

Najma Sharif: It's an escape.

Shuva Rahim: How would you describe your art?

Najma Sharif: I try to capture moments; feelings, and moments. So even when I do the live art, I will look at what's happening and I'll try to capture a moment that I think would make a good painting.

Shuva Rahim: When you were teaching and when you were raising your daughters, you said, you know, you kind of would paint wherever you have room. You're paint in the kitchen or paint wherever you could find space. How did they react to that fluidity of mom just kind of moving around wherever she wanted.

Najma Sharif: Actually, my two daughters, they were very often my models. Okay. I would tell them, 'Oh, put your hand there,' because if I wanted to paint a hand in a specific way, I will tell them, 'Can you put your hand there so they can see?' But I've captured sometimes their gestures, their bodies. But usually if you can look at my paintings, I - even before - I always did the back of a person, because I always liked the lines of the back. So it was very easy to make them 'Okay, sit there and I'll just draw the back.' But they didn't mind. What I found difficult was trying to do these paintings that I wanted to do between my teaching - all the preps and all the marking and all that stuff. And then I, at the same time, I would want to paint. Right. So that's why it wasn't very difficult for me to retire.

Shuva Rahim: Yeah.

Najma Sharif: You know, now, I don't have to think of that. Shuva Rahim: Right.

Najma Sharif: You know that I taught economics, so I enjoy drawing the diagrams on the board.

Shuva Rahim: [ Laughter ]

Najma Sharif: If not anything, I drew well, good diagrams.

Shuva Rahim: Right, right. This economic model and this economic model.

Najma Sharif: Yeah, and my students would be so shocked or surprised when they would find out that I am the one who paints also, because I've met few of my students at some of these weddings.

Shuva Rahim: Oh, ok.

Najma Sharif: Yeah. And then suddenly some previous student comes up, 'Professor Sharif! So I say , 'Yes'.

Shuva Rahim: [ Laughter ]

Najma Sharif: Well, I said 'Now you know'.

Shuva Rahim: That must be a nice, a nice surprise reunion for both of you.

Najma Sharif: Well, yeah, it's always fun to see people so surprised that I taught economics and I then paint, so left side of the brain and the right side of the brain, you know, they try to figure out 'how do the two match?'.

Shuva Rahim: At what point did the idea of painting weddings start? How did that begin? Najma Sharif: So if you remember, when you came for Sindu's wedding.

Shuva Rahim: Sindu's one of your daughters.

Najma Sharif: I had done the wedding invitations and I did paintings for backdrops, I did lot of paintings. So the photographer who was taking all the pictures, he came to the house. Also, he saw all the paintings. So after the wedding, he told me that you do a lot of paintings and I saw how you did all of those invitations and all that. Did you ever think of doing live art? Until that moment, I had no idea what is live art. I said, 'I don't do that.' He said, 'Why don't you look up because I think you will be good at it.' So that's when I looked up online, 'live art'.

Shuva Rahim: So is live art a thing? Is that a thing in Canada?

Najma Sharif: No. It's in USA, too. In Canada, very few people who do it.

Shuva Rahim: 'Cause I haven't come across anybody in the U.S. that does this.

Najma Sharif: When I looked up, I saw some.

Shuva Rahim: OK. Alright.

Najma Sharif: That's when I looked at it, I said, 'OK, maybe I could give it a try.' So I went to my first wedding painting with that photographer.

Shuva Rahim: OK.

Najma Sharif: He said, 'Why didn't you come? I told the couple, and the parents are very excited.' So I was so nervous. I went with extra paper because I also use pen and ink. What if I spill ink? I set it up. And then, you know, once I started to draw it and paint, all my nervousness went away. And then everybody was, you know, looking at it because it was very new in Halifax. So they were all amazed. And so after that I said, 'OK, I can do it.' But the thing about my painting is that if you just check online, you'll see that almost everybody does it in acrylic.

Shuva Rahim: Okay.

Najma Sharif: Acrylic paint. Whereas I am the only one who does it in watercolor, between USA and Canada.

Shuva Rahim: So what year was that first wedding that you did?

Najma Sharif: That was - Sindu got married in 2013 - so that was in 2014.

Shuva Rahim: Okay. So that was six years ago.

Najma Sharif: Yeah, I was still teaching, right, so I didn't do that much. I just did very little at the beginning.

Shuva Rahim: You're still a unique vendor in that respect because I certainly haven't met any live artists, at least in the weddings I've attended or I'd shot. And maybe they're in bigger cities in the U.S. I don't know.

Najma Sharif: But wedding shows, right. I go to many wedding shows because wedding-show people - they want me to come, right.

Shuva Rahim: Oh, sure. Yeah.

Najma Sharif: Even though I have to pay, but they write to me because they want me to come because [they] don't have anybody. So sometimes I have to say, 'no, I cannot' because it's sometimes very expensive. The big city ones are very, very expensive just to rent a booth. Right?

Shuva Rahim: Yeah, absolutely. You did that live wedding. So you did that first one. And then how did you get the second one after you realized, 'Ok, this isn't so bad. I can do this.'. Najma Sharif: You know what, this photographer friend, he put it on his website.

Shuva Rahim: Okay.

Najma Sharif: And that's how people got to know me.

Shuva Rahim: Okay.

Najma Sharif: And then I had calls from parents, et cetera, then. But again, I was a little bit hesitant in going anywhere. I didn't have time to be going for the whole weekend somewhere.

Shuva Rahim: Right.

Najma Sharif: I just took very few in Halifax. The next one was a Army one that was fun because uniforms and things is totally different. And the thing about my painting, you know, it keeps me interested because every wedding I go to is different. So every place is different. Couples are different, so it's never boring to me. And it's never the same painting that you see again and again and again. Right?

Shuva Rahim: How do you prepare for a live painting.

Najma Sharif: Buy my paper. Okay. I need a heavyweight paper because I use a lot of water and quick paintings. I don't want it to drip too much 'cause usually watercolor artists, they buy paper and then they soak it in water. They stretch it and then they dry it so that it doesn't have the bubbles with water. So I have to order that paper. And then if I'm painting in another city, it's very easy for me to just take my brushes. I have my painting palette in one tray. So it's easy to pack my brushes and paints in my suitcase and go. But wherever I go, I get the paper there.

Shuva Rahim: Okay.

Najma Sharif: Because it's too big to carry.

Shuva Rahim: Right, right.

Najma Sharif: Over the years now I have relaxed a lot and I know what I want to do. I usually go a little early because I want to see the venue first.

Shuva Rahim: What does early mean?

Najma Sharif: If they want me to do the reception, so the reception will start at, say six, I am there at four or five.

Shuva Rahim: Okay.

Najma Sharif: Because I want to go into the hall 'cause they may be having cocktails outside.Bbut I wanted to go into the hall or if it's outdoor, you know, reception, I want to see which view will be good for me to paint. And I have to find a place for me to paint. That is another problem that you often run into because since people, even the wedding planners, they don't know what is live art. So they don't know that I need a good view. I need a large table. So they think that they will be just standing somewhere and sketching. So I have to make sure. That's why I go early, that I have my table in the right place, that I want the right size of table, and where I can have a good view of the dance floor.

Shuva Rahim: How much space do you need?

Najma Sharif: I need one of those rectangle tables in a six by three or six by four because my paper size is pretty big - it's 30 inches by 22 inches. And I place it on another board on which I tape it down. So I need a big space for that. And on the side I need the containers and the brush holders and the palette. I usually just ask for that table. Earlier on I used to take my whole lighting lamp and all because you know, when they start to dance, the light is gone. So now I've started taking one of those book lights that I sort of attach to my board so that I can see. There have been occasions where I literally painted in purple lights and weird sort of lights because you know.

Shuva Rahim: I painted all of you purple.

Najma Sharif: The green looks like brown; all the colors are distorted. Now I take my own little light so that at least I can see my palette because I know where my colors are. Right? So if I want to do green, I know where the green is. At least I'll be able to see that 'cause often the wedding planners then get in touch with me asking what I need. And I explained to them thoroughly and I send them pictures of my other painting stations. They don't know. They think that I can be in the lobby and I can paint from there.

Shuva Rahim: Oh wow.

Najma Sharif: That's a wall in front of me. Can I see through that?

Shuva Rahim: Well, listen up wedding planners [laughter].

Najma Sharif: 'Cause they need to understand what I am painting, not there with the sketchbook and just getting people's faces.

Shuva Rahim: Right.

Najma Sharif: In many weddings they also have that because that's for the guests, they love their profiles being drawn and they take it home. This is for the couple, this is for them to frame and hang up in their house and look at it - a memorable thing about their life that they can always look at.

Shuva Rahim: So when you are working at a wedding, most of the paintings I've seen have been reception paintings.

Najma Sharif: I love painting outdoors, especially in Nova Scotia, they have an ocean background. Beautiful. But weather is a problem. Also, I've been at an outdoor wedding in a garden and she really wanted the flower gardens and everything. And then rains came down. So tent was put up, everybody was wet. So very often they should have another plan, right?

Shuva Rahim: Right.

Najma Sharif: Plan B for it. But it depends on what they want. I don't dictate to them what they should have, but some really like the venue. The oceanfront is something that many people - if they get married outdoors - something that they would like. But reception is because that's where everybody's having fun. When I do a wedding ceremony, people are usually sitting and looking at the bride and groom. Right? They're getting married. Whereas if I paint a reception dance that everybody is doing something. For me, that is also fun. I really don't do portraits. I don't do people just standing. If everybody's doing something and during the whole evening, it's not just at one moment - I finish around 12 o'clock at night. I sort of add. I start with the bride and groom doing their first dance in the middle and then they keep on adding everybody else. So it is, it is six, six to seven hours and often standing, you know, bending down.

Shuva Rahim: That's interesting. I didn't know that. So let's say the reception starts at six you're there roughly around four o'clock checking out the venue and reception starts. What time does the first dance normally?

Najma Sharif: So sometimes what happens is that when they enter, they have their first dance and then they go and sit down. Right? And sometimes for me, that is ideal because I can get the whole dress and movement of the first dance moves, all the dips and the twirling around. So I quickly try to sketch that in. Before that, I've already done the background. I've done the chandeliers - drawing of the chandelier, windows, curtains, the flowers on the table, the sweetheart table, whatever is there. I've done all that drawing in the background. So then it's all the things that happening in the middle. It's what I do.

Shuva Rahim: Okay.

Najma Sharif: So I sketch. I don't start painting everything immediately - the bride and groom and everybody. So I try to have the parents and the sisters and the bridesmaids all placed nearby. And then I start to paint. And other people -because you know, people come up to me all the time, you know, guests come up and they say, 'Oh, can you put me in there?' So I leave some space for that. Then I can say, 'okay, that's you,' or, you know, 'that's you' and the children and all that. But before I go for this wedding painting, I often talk to the bride and groom and find out who are the people that I should include.

Shuva Rahim: Right. Najma Sharif: I ask, you know, your parents, your sister, your brother, or your grandmother. They all like that, that I ask that and I said, 'Send me some pictures of them before, so I know what they look like. So when they see them on the dance floor, I will know.' So I have lot of that type of prep to do before I go.

Shuva Rahim: That's very smart.

Najma Sharif: I learned from my original nervousness; I really had no idea what they look like. Right?

Shuva Rahim: Right. Now, you are working pretty much all through the night and you said you normally get done around midnight.

Najma Sharif: Yes.

Shuva Rahim: And you know, that's long after I think a lot of older people have...

Najma Sharif: People my age are in bed. I know.

Shuva Rahim: Yeah, yeah they normally cut out around 9, 9:30 - if that.

Najma Sharif: You know what, when I'm painting, I guess, I can do it. Right?

Shuva Rahim: Yeah. So how do you maintain your stamina?

Najma Sharif: Only when I come back home, after that, I realize that I'm getting cramps in my legs and my back is hurting. And I always cannot put my feet in my shoes because by halfway through the night, I've taken my shoes off. It's like that. I really don't think of things - the hurting - as I paint. It's only when it finishes, I say, 'Oh my God, this is, this is hurting.' You know, at that point, sometimes I'm so tired that even packing up my stuff becomes difficult. I have left behind brushes and stuff in different places because I'm too tired to look for everything. Shuva Rahim: So when you're painting, you're really in your zone.

Najma Sharif: Yeah. But I want to finish it that night. For me, I want to finish it, give it to them, see their faces and then go home.

Shuva Rahim: How much does your service cost or is there a range?

Najma Sharif: See, when I started, right, I had no idea. So I asked my photographer friend and others. So they gave me that, you know, what you, because of the time you spend and all that, this is what you can ask. So I started with Canadian dollars, 1200 and they get a unique painting. They soon realize that this painting is just for them. Nobody else will have it. So, so that's how I started. And then I started doing these packages because people often want to know if I can do some more. So I have, you know, the father-daughter dance, mother-son dance, or the bridesmaids, all those smaller paintings. So I started adding it, two. That means one large painting. I said, okay, for $100, you can have a smaller painting. Okay. When I started to go outside of Halifax, then I said, okay, I need a little bit more. I live in a place where traveling anywhere it's very costly, near ocean. And to go to land in Ontario, I have to fly in. The flights are pretty expensive. Not like in USA. We have few airlines. So what I did was I took up extra for my flight. And then in Toronto and Ottawa, since I could stay with my daughters, I don't take any accommodation. I said, I'll stay there. But if I go to say Quebec City and Montreal and Fredericton, I ask for my accommodation also - one night. Those people are pretty happy to put me up in the same hotel where the wedding is.

Shuva Rahim: Right.

Najma Sharif: In Quebec City, they know that I'm coming from far. Weddings are expensive for many couples. This cannot be fit into a budget. So I understand that. Tell them, 'Don't worry. If it's not in your budget, I can always do it as a commissioned art later on', which is cheaper because then I just do it at home and I charge by the size of the paper. But those who like what I do, they also know that it is a great entertainment for the guests. I have seen over these four or five years, how the guests enjoy. Because at the beginning, they're sort of saying, 'Ooh, what's this woman doing? And why is she setting up this table?' And then they start coming and asking, 'What are you going to do?' I said, 'I'm going to paint whatever you guys are going to do.' Okay. Then they come and check: 'Oh, am I there, am I there?' When I gave it back, sometimes they put the painting up on an easel for everybody to check. Most people are there checking if they are there. Shuva Rahim: Oh, that's fun.

Najma Sharif: So many people realize that. They don't mind.

Shuva Rahim: Yeah.

Najma Sharif: Paying the price.

Shuva Rahim: That's interesting because when most people think of painters, I think at least me, I think of somebody working in a quiet studio, they're very isolated. But your work is so public.

Najma Sharif: I'm answering questions all the time. They come and talk to me. They ask me, you know, how do I do this? Children come and ask if I can paint their face, things like that. Some children come and just stand around my table. So I have to tell them, 'Don't touch my brushes. Move away a bit.' But some are so mesmerized; little kids who are interested in art, they come and watch me paint. People come and talk to me all the time and they ask, 'Are you being disturbed?' I said, 'No, it's okay.' It gives me a little break also by talking to them and they're taking pictures of me or they all come and take pictures of me painting.

Shuva Rahim: That doesn't distract you at all.

Najma Sharif: No, I don't know why because I think I haven't been that sort of a person that I need to be isolated. I'm a social person. So that goes with it.

Shuva Rahim: Right.

Najma Sharif: And sometimes I just hand my phone to the person who is behind me. I said, 'If you're standing there, you might as well take a video of me.' [ laughter ].

Shuva Rahim: Put yourself to good use here. Najma Sharif: Yes, take a video of me [you're ] just standing here.

Shuva Rahim: You mentioned Trevor [the photographer].

Najma Sharif: Trevor Allen.

Shuva Rahim: Trevor Allen. Yes, the photographer. He got you into this. What has been the reaction of other wedding vendors that you've worked with?

Najma Sharif: Most of the photographers, love, love seeing me paint and others also. So really I haven't seen like as if I'm taking away something from them. No. I think most people realize that they're also getting something out of it. They take pictures of me painting. When I go to the same venue again, like I went to a venue twice or thrice in Ottawa, they remembered me. They took pictures of me. Then they would come and show me, 'See you were here last time.' Then they try to help me like putting light. Lighting is my biggest issue. Indoor weddings I don't get proper light. So once they realize that how important it is, then they help me. Because I was at this wedding in Toronto, in January, snowfall, heavy snow. But it was one of those old buildings that they turned into wedding venues. And it was a big Jewish wedding. And the girl lives here and she wanted me to go paint there. And then she told the venue, people that. 'Najma, whatever she wants, she gets.' That was her instruction. She wanted the ceremony. So there was, I needed to see the whole, the huppah and all that and the girl going up. So they put me right behind that whole path, aisle the girls goes up, and I'm there with light on me. And then suddenly I realized afterwards - 'cause I have her wedding album - that I have photo bombed all the pictures. Because I was there. I was right there.

Shuva Rahim: But you photo-bombed it for the guests, not the photographer.

Najma Sharif: No, no, no. All the pictures have me in the back.

Shuva Rahim: Oh, funny. OK.

Najma Sharif: We can say, so here are the guests looking that way and there's the huppah and the girl is going and the photographer is taking pictures from the other side to get pictures of the bride and groom. And I am in the back and painting and with full light on me. I said, 'Well, that's what the Naomi wanted. You know, she wanted me to paint that'.

Shuva Rahim: Right. Whatever Najma wants, she gets.

Najma Sharif: ... yeah, Najma gets her instruction was, and she's still coming. She's still getting paintings for me for Mother's Day. She took a painting that I did of her mother and her, and for her father's birthday, she came and took another painting. She wanted to give a painting to her grandmother who was 95 years old who had come to the wedding. So there was one nice picture of her kissing her grandmother. So I did that. So she took that. So she comes and she says, 'Just put it on my tab.' It is continuing all the moments that I have painted because afterwards they realize that I just take one of the things that they would like to see later. I say, 'I don't do portraits. Don't ask me to paint people just standing and posing. That I will not do. It has to have some meaning for me to paint, for me to be also excited about that painting.

Shuva Rahim: What is it that you think attracts couples to your work?

Najma Sharif: There are some couples - they don't have big budgets. They have actually cut down on other things because they like my painting. They would like a painting. There are couples who have done that. They said 'I'd much rather have this painting than huge album of photographs.' They'll just get a photographer for some things, but not for everything. So they have managed in their budget to fit me in because they see what they like. And especially those who have little bit of art background, they like it also because they also realize that watercolor is very difficult. Most of them realize that it's not that easy to do watercolor paintings. There are weddings where the parents give it as a gift to the couple. So parents like it also. Fifty percent or more of my paintings, live arts, have been gifts from the family to the couple, the couple could not afford it. So parents chip in and they, they give it as a gift.

Shuva Rahim: What is the biggest misconception about what you do? Or is there a misconception about your work?

Najma Sharif: When I'm painting at weddings - even then - people sometimes are, 'So do you take pictures to paint from?' They still think that I'm painting from pictures. I do take quick pictures just to see the face that I'm doing the right person, but I'm not painting from a picture the. The other misconception is, which is something that I find little peculiar at points, that at wedding shows I've been asked, 'So how many paintings do you do in one evening?' So that always surprised me. Do you see the size of my paper and what I paint? So I have to say, 'No, I just do one. I'm lucky if I can finish one.

Shuva Rahim: I mean, that would be a reasonable question for a photographer cause we're always shooting.

Najma Sharif: Yes, and also those who do those street festivals, you know, they always have people. So they do a lot. But for me, I'm just, just lucky if I can stand 'til 12 o'clock at night.

Shuva Rahim: How many weddings do you normally do now? Pre-pandemic. How many weddings a year?

Najma Sharif: Last year was very busy. I did, I think 12 paintings. And this year I was booked for more. I was just able to do one and I was doing three paintings a month and I cannot do more than that because I'd be traveling to Ottawa, I'll be traveling to Toronto. They're sometimes back-to-back. If I'm painting on say, the 12th of May, there would somebody who will be asking me for the 13th of May, but in a different city. I said, 'I just cannot do that.'

Shuva Rahim: Do you have a favorite wedding that you've painted at?

Najma Sharif: I think this Jewish wedding was my favorite 'cause there was so much I learned from the wedding. I loved listening to the music and some of the traditions were so similar to ours, the Hindu wedding, seven rounds around the fire. They have seven rounds also. There's so many things that were so similar, and yet different and engaging everybody. They would have family members and friends, everybody reading something at the wedding ceremony. That was really fun. Before that, a year ago I went to a wedding in Quebec City. I was asked to go paint in one of the best hotels all around, Chateau Frontenac. And it was so grand that it just blew my mind, you know. When I went there, I actually stayed in the hotel also. It was something. The family also makes it nice for me. When I go to paint, it gives me a good experience also. And then there was one live art that I did in Toronto in a golf club. I was asked by the friends of the groom to go and paint. It was their gift. And when I was painting, I kept on hearing all kinds of sports things and making the, you know, sports sounds and all that. So by the end of the night I said, 'Oh my God, this guy must be somebody in the sports. He's Cabrel, and he's a huge sports commentator now in Las Vegas. But he is in Toronto. Everybody knows him as Real Cabby. He has an Instagram therealcabby. I said, 'I have to go tell my son-in-law that I painted at your wedding.'.

Shuva Rahim: What kind of message does your work, your love for paining, send to people your age or younger generations?

Najma Sharif: There was a period when I also used to paint blues, you know. People sad and people tearful, you know, but now I only paint happy things. Weddings are the happiest time for everybody. I've heard some, you know, some lovely stories from all the wedding speeches. So the things that people go through to come to this place when they are getting married, everybody is so happy. You know? So that is what I want to do. Show that these are happy moments. Now we have enough unhappiness, so I don't want to be painting sadness.

Shuva Rahim: You won't be painting the coronavirus.

Najma Sharif: Yeah, I know. The city wanted me to do a memorial to the 9.11 exhibition the year after 9.11. So I said, 'Look, I don't paint falling buildings and I don't do that.' So I just do it my way. So I did children playing around the world, different scenes of children playing with little paper boats, swinging from a tree. So that's what I did around the world. It's not about the disasters that we came across. So, so I think since then I have not painted unhappy things. I always liked dancing, like flamenco dancers, tango dancers, and you know, musicians. So in wedding paintings, it's sort of all together because I have the dances. I have the live band I paint sometimes in there. So all the things are sort of coming together in live painting. My love of dancers, my love of music and my love of flowers. Right? So everything is there. I enjoy it myself. If I didn't enjoy it, I would not be doing.

Shuva Rahim: And you meet some really fun people.

Najma Sharif: I meet some incredible people. Really. If I had just stuck to my professors and all the colleagues and all that, I would have never met these people. Now I have friends everywhere, young and old, men. Often, you know, you think is the girls are going to ask for painting. I am so happy and surprised when [it] is the groom who contacts me. He said that, he would like a painting to be done.

Shuva Rahim: What are you doing during this pandemic? Are all your weddings postponed now?

Najma Sharif: Yes. There are some in September, October. They're not yet postponed. But April, May, June - they're all postponed to next year. There are some paintings I'm doing for fun for my sake, but they're also the small paintings that I'm doing for families. A girl approached me recently. She sent me old photographs and they were children. There were three daughters and the parents - now the daughters have grown up. They wanted to give it to the parents as the anniversary gift. So I I'm doing a lot of 25th anniversary gifts and I've done even a 50th anniversary gift like that. So now with all pictures, what happens is that sometimes, you know, they don't even have good pictures. So they send me various pictures. And I see if I can compose one.

Shuva Rahim: How long do you expect to keep doing this?

Najma Sharif: Okay. As long as my eyesight doesn't fail. I always had very poor eyesight. My left eye is very bad compared to my right eye. So it's almost like I paint with one eye. Very often, because I paint so many things without almost seeing, so it doesn't bother me that much because I can paint without fully seeing it. But the part that is bothering me now is the standing. You know, three years ago I had that stroke. So that sort of left my right side a little numb. So standing on that for long sort of bothers me.

Shuva Rahim: Are you able to do your work sitting down?

Najma Sharif: No, because it's such a huge thing. I don't have it up on an easel because then water will drip. Right? So I have it in a slanted board so that I have to stand and bend down. So nowadays I will - every now and then - control that standing. So I try to once in a while sit, but then I have to finish. I cannot be sitting and then food because they, you know, they try to feed me. I'm not going to go to a table. Just bring me a plate here only. I'll keep it on the side and eat in between. But sometimes I forget to eat.

Shuva Rahim: Talk about how it's been important to have the support of your family throughout this endeavor.

Najma Sharif: Oh, we know without all the support, there's no way I could have done this, especially my husband, Atul, right. If I'm around here, painting in Halifax on the surroundings, he takes the things there. He sets me up and then picks me up from wherever I am. And all the wedding shows that I have been going to in Halifax. He goes and helps to set it up tables and chairs and paintings. My paintings are huge and it's framed. You have to take it, you know, carefully. So he does all that and even packs a sandwich for me so that I can eat while I'm there. And the girls are living in Ottawa or in Toronto. Afsha, all the shows. She has helped me so much. Her husband drives me to the place. I always take a cab home. I said, ''No, you don't have to pick me up. He dropped me. That's good enough.' Right. And in, in Toronto, in Toronto, things are so far. It's a huge city, it takes an hour by car to go. So there I said, I'll take Uber. I'll go there and I'll come back. They wait up for me. I come home at one o'clock at night. So I said, I won't even have the energy to open the door. They said, 'Okay, just let us know. We'll leave the door unlocked and unalarmed.' I don't want to set the alarm on, right?

Shuva Rahim: Yeah. That's, funny. Your mom coming home at one in the morning, partying it out at her wedding reception. That's all.

Najma Sharif: Oh, you know what? My little grandson - be 4 in August - it's so cute. He knows that I'm going to paint. The next day, he wants to see 'Nanu, you did your painting?' He wants to see what I did. So I have to show him a picture of what I did. Eshana, too. They know they sometimes like to paint also. I said, 'Okay, you take your paper, you do this.' And she's coloring so well. I said, 'Okay, I think I have competition.'.

Shuva Rahim: How old is she?

Najma Sharif: She is five. Her coloring is really good.

Shuva Rahim: I'm curious after the restrictions loosen. Do you envision still being able to go back to wedding painting, but with some parameters in mind and what that looks like?

Najma Sharif: I think the wedding industry has taken such a hit. Yes. There are some smaller weddings, outdoor weddings. I can see those happening. But big indoor weddings. I don't see them happening this year. I know in Halifax, they have Citadel Hill. There's a wedding in October. That's going to be there inside the courtyard - that can happen. Like if they asked me to do the wedding ceremony, I can do that if it's outdoors. But I don't think I can do receptions this year. So there're smaller weddings. There's some, you know, afternoon weddings, the gardens, et cetera, that I think can happen. Everybody's hurting. I can see on Instagram, all the wedding venue people here, all the photographers. Now, of course the Zoom wedding's happening, some people are doing that, right?

Shuva Rahim: Would you paint a wedding through Zoom?

Najma Sharif: If you have photographs of people getting married and their relatives that they wish were there, I could create a wedding scene. If they had a proper wedding, this is where they would have had it. Right? In some garden or somewhere - and the most important people. I can do that because, you know what happened last year. There was a girl in New Brunswick. Her friends came to me to ask if I could do a painting 'cause what had happened was the photographer lost all the pictures from the wedding. So if I could somehow do a painting that would have some thing about her wedding. So she had this really nice house the background, which her grandfather had given her. Had all her pictures from friends, little snippets. Then I spoke with them: 'Who was what? Then I did a painting with that house in the background. And she also wanted her grandfather, who had gifted the house to her. So the grandfather was in a wheelchair. So I did the grandfather there and I sort of made a painting that is in front of that house for them. So she wrote to me two days ago that she still looks at it; all the things were lost and she got back some in that painting.

Shuva Rahim: Wow.

Najma Sharif: I can do that because I sort of suggested that to a bride who was going to get married May 2nd. And she had booked me two years ago and she was so excited about it. Her mother was writing to me, this thing [coronavirus] happened. So her mother wrote to me that they just want to get married anyway. So I said, later on you can send me some pictures. At least I can do one painting for her, not live, but I can create one there.

Shuva Rahim: Anything else about your paintings that you think are important that you want people to know?

Najma Sharif: I want people to go check my website and see, because then they will know. It's very hard to describe all that I do, right? 'Cause I have put there large paintings, but also snippets of first dance and ethnic weddings and destination weddings.

Shuva Rahim: And you have a very active Instagram account.

Najma Sharif: I do because I paint every day because people can see sometimes from the sketch to the finish. Today, I was doing somebody I know. Her mother's wedding pictures, it's all black and white and very faded. I'm asking her, 'Do you know the color of the bridesmaids dresses?' She said, 'No, I think it was all white.'.

Shuva Rahim: [ Laughter ]

Najma Sharif: That's another thing that people may not know about my style of painting. I actually paint the shadows. I never paint the dress. It's the shadows that are around so reflections and all that. So I can do white because there's little reflections and shadows that come from the light on top. I never get bored of doing the bridal dress because every light gives it a different color.

Shuva Rahim: Well, I remember when you were at my wedding as a family member, not as a painter, and then a few months later and you gave me a painting of us under willow tree.

Najma Sharif: Under the tree because I love that tree also, right?

Shuva Rahim: Yeah. That we got married under. And I remember looking at that and It's, it's so dreamy. I love it. The only thing, and I joke, I joke about this because you made Scott look thinner than he actually is. [ laughter ]

Najma Sharif: People have approached me when I'm painting and asked me, 'Can you paint me?' Bald men will always say, 'Can you give me more hair?' Bald men, if I put hair on you, I said, 'nobody will recognize you.' Women my age will come and say, 'Can you give me curves? I can get rid of my double chin. I'll do that for you.' When I go to weddings now it is not that difficult to paint, sort of less hair people. And it's very easy to point it out to them that, 'Oh, that's you' cause I had lot of heads, bald heads everywhere.

Shuva Rahim: So I'd like to end on recommendations. So do you have a particular recommendation for anything?

Najma Sharif: I always read a lot. I still remember my first love of books was Jane Austen's books. I still like all the Jane Austen movies. Recently, I read a lot of Indian authors, also. Namesake and Bharati Chowdhury. She writes really well.

Shuva Rahim: Well, my recommendation is a location, which you mentioned earlier and you've painted at, which is Peggy's Cove.

Najma Sharif: Yes

Shuva Rahim: You actually gifted me with a painting. It's in my dining room area.

Najma Sharif: Well I told you that you like lighthouses so much, you should come here and get married in front of the lighthouse.

Shuva Rahim: Yeah. I love Peggy's Cove. I've been there. I think twice at least. Now, you have done some beautiful work and I have a couple of your paintings. I know my parents have your work in their home and it's so lovely to look at so well appreciated.

Shuva Rahim: I’m currently finalizing interviews for Season 2, which I hope to launch after Labor Day weekend. If you’re new to this podcast, I feature actively engaged people 55 and older who are currently doing amazing and inspiring things with their lives. Currently is the key word – especially if they’ve changed careers or are pursuing something of longtime interest with greater intensity.

Lastly, I am looking ahead at Season 3, which I hope will launch at the end of 2020 or early 2021. I’d like to do something different in Season 3, which is highlight people 55+ who in some way do something that relates to animals. Interpret that however you want. But if you have someone in mind, please let me know at [email protected].