Imagination is essential to art because it allows artists to conceptualise their ideas and then bring them to life. Without imagination, art would merely consist of haphazardly placed materials or marks on a page. It is the ability to imagine that makes art truly beautiful. Art and imagination are very close to each other. Imagination could be produced from many sources and is the ability that an artist has to form images or ideas in his mind of things that are new and exciting, or things that one has not experienced. Art has always been a means of expressing human creativity and imagination. From the earliest cave paintings to the most modern digital artworks, artists have used their imaginations to create works that inspire, challenge, and move us.

Sayedur Rahman's artworks accord us a contemplative glimpse into our own power of imagination. He portrays images that play in our subconscious minds and his artworks focus on imaginative expressions through the exploration of the unconscious mind. Sayedur has acquired an enigmatic quality in his works that works on many levels from the visual to the subconscious. The figures have been meticulously drawn and their facial expressions carry miscellaneous moods. His ponderings on art delineate a vast range of themes from reality to fantasy, imagination to imperfection, and sometimes the artist delves deep into a psychological voyage through his surrounding characters. He also portrays the characters, which have no existence in the real world, which play in his subconscious mind, and where one gets a touch of surrealism. He depicts the figures in different perspectives and diverse modes of expression - figures in pensive mood, figures in close proximity, as well as, their affections, longings, yearnings, conflicts and figural movements are also noticeable in his works. It has been clearly noticeable that the artist has an in-depth understanding of the characters which he portrays. Some of his figures and the overall structures of the compositions have clearly highlighted the society's socio-economic and surrounding mayhem. He has engrossed himself with his themes. First and foremost, the best quality of Sayedur is his candid honesty and true passion for his paintings. His paintings are always a particular theme-based and portray the bitter realities of society.

Sayedur's images balance a rational vision of life with one that asserts the power of the unconscious. He is very careful about his arrangement of figures. The painter takes considerable time to finish each piece of his work. By means of his measured and unhurried brush strokes and soft textures, gets a splendid look. His lines have created a distinct language where one can learn about his perseverance, longing and devotion to art.

I am very deeply impressed by the range of Sayedur's works, his compositions and the way he presents his inner thoughts and his surrounding ambiences. The artist is definitely one who largely experimented with materials and colours. In keeping with his experimental nature, he has worked in pen, pencil, watercolour, acrylic, mural, graphic, and more. The artist also likes to experiment with colour in all its various facets. He has concentrated on applying colours and shallow layers of colours provide a unique tone to his works and that is why his work carries a singular hallmark. His paintings create an expression on the essence of a colour and what the colours really mean. Over the years, he has developed a number of techniques, which are very expensive and time-consuming, requiring immense effort and devotion. I think Sayedur is a very outstanding painter because of his sincerity, in-depth observation of topics and above all his unpretentious approaches.

The artist now lives in New York. He loves to depict human life and surrounding nature in such a way where realistic and surrealistic forms and figures get merged on paper and canvas. He is inclined to use different sizes of canvases and papers for depicting culture of his atmospheres. He occasionally likes to experiment with diverse vague and plain forms, and enjoys breaking and constructing them in many ways. In many of Sayedur's works, one finds a great interchange between abstract and realistic forms. All of his images pulsate with life provocatively and dramatically. These elements make his paintings seem an authentic part of our surroundings with all our conflicts and achievements. His figures hint at many untold stories. His thought process is seemingly eloquent and has a touch of contemplation.

As a surrealist, realist and figurative painter simultaneously, Sayedur's focus is on colour and its various facets. Black is the predominant aspect in his works. The painter has experimented with black, and its mysterious tones, tenors and layers of colour. Most of his colours look muted and the message has always been one of peace and harmony. His paintings are technique-oriented as well. His lines have created a distinct language where one can learn about his perseverance, longing and devotion to art.

When Sayedur gets immersed with his paintings, he loses himself. He is recognised for nurturing enough gallantry to destroy his labourious productions if he finds them unsatisfactory and therefore he creates a new pattern, as the world of painting surrounds him from all possible dimensions. He most certainly does not seem to relent and on the contrary cannot help but breathe life into each painting. In this very way Sayedur applies colours and creates figures, lines and compositions. He puts layers upon layers of paint and draws forms and objects continuously until he feels that he has achieved what he has been striving for. The outcome is a contemplative, subtly balanced arrangement of colours and space that does not fail to draw an art enthusiast's eyes.

Sayedur Rahman is simultaneously workaholic and scholarly sound. Over the course of years, he has been doggedly experimenting. He gives a precise explanation to his forms and compositions which make a new meaning for his paintings. He always provides a new look for each of his expositions. The painter is always driven to explore something novel. It breaks boredom for him and he believes art can be enriched through experimentation.

The writer is an art critic and cultural curator.