When we loaned Mick Turner photos to Local Artist Muhmood Tahir we knew we could expect something special, and last week he came back into the office to deliver some fabulous artwork!
Muhmood has worked in drawing, painting and sculpture for most of his life – see Birmingham Open Studios. I had the opportunity to talk to Muhmood about his artwork, and this particular special artwork for Balsall Heath. We started to talk about why Balsall Heath was so important to him:
‘When I see that sign, I’m home. Yeah, that’s my hometown.’
Muhmood Tahir
‘I’ve painted what I feel about the place. They both say something about how I feel about Balsall Heath.’
First he talked about the painting with the iconic Moseley Road Baths:
‘The building I’m so very familiar with, you feel as if it’s always been there. All kinds of things [are in the foreground]. Things that have been thrown away, but people are using them. All kinds of things, records, stop sign…all things from the past, and even the car is old. They’re gathering things, the kids of Balsall Heath.’
He talked about his approach to painting:
‘That’s the picture I felt. And that’s when I was doing that and I was feeling that I was trying to make the figures come to life with the expression. Each figure has a movement and I keep that going all through the picture, to keep that balance. These colours, you know, they’re sharp but they lightly done so like a distance, and moving. They’re not sharp but they they’re there.’
‘They’re drawings. They’re done with a pen. You look carefully. Pens on canvas, it can be very sensitive. A touch of paint, with acrylics, on top of it, just to give that illusion. It just needs movement of line, so I kept it, in a drawing sense, you know, not a painting. So, the moment I start adding paint, the whole volume would change.’
The second painting has elements of houses Muhmood has lived in. I asked him about the dates:
‘These are important dates – this is the time I was at school. I didn’t go too far ahead [with the dates]’
‘It’s just a street I remember, as growing up because don’t forget, with me, these streets have a personal feeling. I like the composition of people coming through. It may be something that moves you, simply beautiful things right? In the chaos it has a beauty around it. It may only be a small thing, but it moves you.’
‘I’ve become more refrained and stayed in my studio at home painting, because that keeps me alive as a human being.’
Muhmood Tahir
We asked Muhmood where he would like his paintings to be: ‘Somewhere people can see it, somewhere they can relate to it.’ The obvious place for artwork of this quality and subject matter we feel is our Balsall Heath Library, now closed for refurbishment. We plan to talk to the Library Services to see what is possible on it’s reopening next year.
In the meantime, you can see the artwork at the launch of the Heathan, this Saturday 11th April 2026 at the Old Print Works.