Inks

i thought i'd get my hands wet on my new inks. im becoming quite the fan of gold.

as i ended up liking this piece, i regret not having used proper paper. its plain copy paper.

Im thinking of trying something similar on a large scale... or not! :p

we'll see tomorrow.

* lorca and his gypsy balads.

twitter art exhibition- Moss Norway

this was really an awesome experience, i loved following davids' step by step updates right up till opening night.

so here's the thing, david's a swedish artist living in moss, norway. David realised the local library is short on children books & so thought up a solution to fund this shortage, a twitter charity art exhibition!



so he sent his tweet/call to artists to participate, and sure enough twittering artists were quick to answer & so postcard paintings start flying in from all over the world. (don't you just love that statue!)



the library was very excited with whole idea, and preped a wall for the exhibition,





Opening night was set for December 2nd, & all paintings price decided @ 32$ each. exhibition will run till the end of january.
opening sales huge success @ over 1400$, so yay i see some new children books in the horizon.

exhibition was called "140 charactes" corresponding with twitters 140 max characters and the original goal number of artists required.
paintings were still arriving post opening night, & participations past 250!




more opening pictures here, one of the librarians was nice enough to post them. as davids porject caught quite a few eyes, there was a series of tv/radio/newspaper interviews pertainting to the exhibition. here's an article about the exhibition in a local newspaper. what? you dont say, you don't speak norwegan?!
you and me both!lol. news flash google translator is your friend ;)
Bravo David.

--
almost forgot :p
this is my piece

color me free

I've been basically staring at this finished painting for the past week or so. khalas, your time's up. off my easel!

*acrylic

walk like egyptian!

this was inspired - i kid you not- by the news. ancient egyptian archaeological findings in wild wild arabia. I've had ancient art forms in the back of my mind for some time, this might just open a flood.

continous contouring again, i did a quick hand sketch then slapped some color with ps, that took ages. :s

little books for little ones

I made these postcard size pieces for a little book event.

I marbled these papers some time ago, mounted them on watercolor paper. Im all out of india ink so i had to make do with black acrylic :s

I was too hasty mounting the blue one, so it bubbled up some. I still think its the prettier one but bubbles are bothering me, might just send the pink.

* will tell you more if i make the deadline, had an awfully late start.

tweet tweet!

messing around with birds. tweet, tweet!

word of wisdom: mess around on the right type of paper. darned if u don't end up liking the mess on the crappy copy paper, then u'll just want to kick ur self!
I'm too far gone to learn but save ur self!!

Layla

posting this piece slipped my mind.

If you've been following you know by now im crazy about Qais layla poems. Naturally there's no competing with the Majnoon's first hand accounts, still Bahraini poet Qassim Haddad does it so beautifully.
The poem i used here's one i particularly love "aan Qais" from Haddad's book "Akhbar Majnoon Layla"

عن قيس
عن الهوى يسكن الدار
عن شاعر صاغني في هواه
عن اللون والاسم والرائحة
عن الختم والفاتحة
كنت مثل السديم استوي في يديه
هداني إليه
برئت من الناس لما بكاني إليهم
زها بي وغنوا الأغاني بأشعاره
فما كان لي أن أقدر هل أشعلني أم طفاني
سأقول عن قيس
عن جنة بين عيني ضاعت
عن هواء أسعف الطير واستخف بنا واصطفانا
عن كلما هم بي تهت فيه
وباهيت كي نحتفي بالمزيج
غن العشق تلتاع فيه الحجاز
ويشغف في ضفتيه الخليج
سأقول عن قيس
عن حزنه القرمزي
عن الليل يتبع خطاه الوئيده
-


*Acrylic

my darling angel

more contouring. Digital this time.
its so much easier to keep your hand steady on paper, a more natural feel.
continuous contour, well sort of, i cheated a little :p
*i miss this little angel. <3

lines!

well what do u know, i'm finally befriending my pencils an pens. not a hint of color in sight!
black's the it color! being a color freak that's quite the quantum leap.

this is very.... zen in a milk your creative juices sort of way.
lines lines lines, how i love you lines!

* p.s. yea,yea, i know, super excited. blah blah blah...

Showing in Lebanon!

Im happy to have my work take part in the The House of Frida Exhibition.
The House of Frida is an art event that will be celebrating the art and life of mexican artist Frida Kahlo. It's to take place in Beirut, Lebanon over the span of 2 monthes. Offical opening is on 22nd October.
The event is put together by VAPA Association. and curated by art curator Sama Hawa.

organizers are hoping to turn Roof68 to a Beiruti version of La Casa Azul or the blue house Frida's home in Mexico.

next paragraph/update i nicked from events facebook page:

We would like to inform you that the gathering for artists contributing to the House of Frida event will take place on Saturday October 2nd while the official launch of the event and opening ceremony will be held on Friday October 22nd (by invitation only). Kindly contact us to book or purchase your tic...ket for the event following the date of the official opening (October 22nd).

We would like to thank you for your perseverence and hope to see you there.
Kindly note that we will update you soon with the list of contributing artists and partners of this event.

Best regards,
VAPA (Visual & Performing Arts Association)

Place of the event:
Ground 68 - Ground Floor – Al Shami Building – St. Louis St. – Achrafieh – Beirut – Lebanon

Contact details:
Email: vapaorg@gmail.com
Mobile: 03-466764

the watercolorist in me

16.5*22.5 inch


- Doing this piece so wetted my appetite for large watercolors.
Sometimes I'd do a watercolor and think I really could give up other forms of media for this.
Seems there's a watercolorist locked inside who needs more space. to paint & to grow.

little ballerina

this little ballerina has a story.
this was inspired by a little girl (not so little now) of about 8 or 9 years, who asked me if her clothes made her look fat!
That really blew my mind as i hadn't realised till then, how crucial an issue weight struggles and body image have become to girls even at such tender ages. It's disheartening to think that our weight obsession (healthy or otherwise) in the adult world is robbing them of their childhood, of giving tea parties and playing ballerinas...

Lorca!

.

verde, que te quiero verde.
(Green, how i want you green)
*my heart skips every time i read this verse.
this is from federico garcia lorca's "Romancero Sonambulo" or "Dreamwalker Ballad"

من "أغنية السائر في نومه"

خضراء لكم احبك ايتها الخضراء
ريح خضراء، غصون خضراء.
والقارب فوق البحر
والحصان فوق الجبل.
وهي تحلم في شرفتها بشرة خضراء، شعر اخضر
وعينان من الفضة الباردة.
خضراء لكم احبك ايتها الخضراء.
وتحت قمر الفجر
كانت الاشياء ترنو اليها
ولكنها لم تككن قادرة على ان تبادلها النظر

Reading Related Art

when I'm reading, my hands sometimes itch so badly for paint i just have to put the book down and draw.

Eid Mubarak

I've been the slacker & not posted a thing here for a while, i haven't stopped painting though.
will update u soon inshallah.

Frida III

my hands were itching to tune up - or down- this painting.
luckily i didn't regret going back to it.
this time its really finished.

Frida II

pulled an all nighter to finish this one up...
I hadn't planned on using so much black, especially not with here flair for flowers and bright clothes, but with all the physical and emotional burdens she juggled regularly it seemed appropriate. like her self portrait where her rib cage's wide open and a metal column passing through her. beneath all here bright strong facade was a whole lot of dark heavy chain to be maneuvered with every step. dark colors, came naturally in the painting, an unconscious choice really.

* acrylic on canvas

ted & teddy

this little piece i painted a while back (how long is a while? :p)
ref courtesy of wetcanvas.

* oil on canvas panel

Frida

it's been a while since ive felt inspired.

* work in progress

universal ain/ عين كونية

never got around to posting this piece finished.

*acrylic on canvas

ع

call of the sea

As i was reading Moby Dick at the time, a sea painting seemed appropriate.

-Acrylic on canvas
18*24 inch

في ذكر الجنة

I've been beyound lazy when it comes to posting.
this paintings' been finished for quite a while.

Acrylic on canvas
18*24 inch

* ....إي والذي نفسي بيده إن في الجنة لخيلاً

step 1

well step 2 in reality.
step 1 would be staring endlessly at your blank canvas, that might be a while..

* charcoal on canvas

جيم

If this doesn't teach me patience I don't know what will.

عين

i was studying the letter ain today & thought why not give my marbled paper a try!

this i'd like to do on a larger scale

The good the bad & the ugly

-I haven't painted for a while and have missed it dreadfully.

It feels so good to be back at it.

- the bad & the ugly are time-lines in the 'no painting' zone.

---

60×60 cm

Acrylic on canvas

أنشودة المطر

I was asked to paint this for a wedding present.

one of my fav poems.

أنشودة المطر للسياب

عيناك غابتا نخيل ساعة السحر

أو شرفتان راح ينأى عنهما القمر

عيناك حين تبسمان تورق الكروم

وترقص الأضواء كالأقمار في نهر

*acrylic.

what a night, what a month

this month was tough painting wise. this is the first painting i actually finished.
panic receptors coming down, i can paint again, yay! :p

red company

Corniche

the corniche is one of my favorite places, I'm always thinking i want to do more paintings., the sea, greenery, people chilling, walking around, exercising... simple pleasure in life

more to come, lets hope! :p

50*70 cm

Acrylic on wrapped canvas

spammers suck

I've had to turn on my comment moderation - which I really don't like - because of all the spam comments I've been getting lately.

please come back, read, look & tell me what you think. I do like hearing from you.
spammers; your not invited!

Soon

Another passion in the works.

Soon :)

Side Cafe/ قهوة ع المفرق

Acrylic on canvas

20*28 inch

*favering bigger pieces these days.

The Sorceress Woke Me

I don't think I posted this here, was painted some months earlier.

مجددا قاسم حداد و أيقظتني الساحرة،

تفتح الأبواب وأدخل

تصقل الكتب وأقرأ

18 *24 inch

Acrylic on canvas, framed.

La - لا

وقالوا لو تشاء سلوت عنها - فقلت لهم فإني لا أشاء.

* قيس ليلى

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11×14 inch

Acrylic on canvas

Qais

*Acrylic
10 × 14 inch canvas

ready to hang