Filed under: Derwent Journal Three, Sketchbook | Tags: blender, derwent journal, will it blend
Filed under: Dance, Many Flowers | Tags: ballerina, dance, Kuwait, painting, progress
earlier
now
Filed under: Derwent Journal Three, Sketchbook | Tags: air, derwent, ink, journal, Kuwait, slavery, travel
Filed under: Dance | Tags: andie, ballerina, colorful, flowers, hicks, painting
When I decided to do a dance series, I started off so gung-ho and art school about it. I wanted to call Andie Hicks (I think everyone with a daughter, niece or little sister knows she’s the doyen of Kuwait’s ballet world) and sit in on her sessions. Then I thought I’d get the same result by watching videos of ballerinas dancing. Plus I’d be conducting the research in the comfort of my solitude. I also realized that one of my most prized possessions is my imagination so to couple that with actual research sends the jiggles up and down my spine. I’m very excited about this new painting and-perhaps like you-I wonder who this woman will ultimately be.
Filed under: moleskine | Tags: color, moleskine, notebook, pain, persistent, possession, sketch
you're mine
Filed under: Derwent Journal Three, Rants & Raves | Tags: appendicitis, appendix, derwent, hospitals, journal, Kuwait, rant, rave, Sketchbook
forgot the stamp
You know how I’ve been feeling really sick lately? I got a little better, then crashed back down again. Yesterday morning I woke up with a sharp pain in my right side. I was on my back the whole day watching TV wondering what the fuck was wrong with me. Then a thought came to my head that perhaps it was a hernia. By nighttime, I was convinced it was a hernia and that I needed to see the doctor first thing in the morning. Hernia meant so many things: no exercise (boo and hooray), no more getting sick like this, and hello to being pampered for the rest of my life by my children who I was planning on making feel quite guilty for all the years I spent picking up after them! This morning at the hospital, no such luck with my evil plans. (more…)
Filed under: Dance | Tags: ballerina, ballet, canvas, dance, Kuwait, painting, paola riga
this is my new painting as it stands this morning. i have no idea where this or subsequent paintings are heading, all i know is that i have this idea
After finishing Stories of Eves, I felt an overwhelming sense of aimlessness. There was, however, still the exhibition to look forward to. But after the opening, while shuffling my children, the gallery and nursing what felt like a stomach bug, I thought of something a visitor to my show suggested: my girls dancing. I didn’t think much of it until yesterday, when I started feeling significantly better and I felt that I could breathe, taste, see, hear and touch life again (I know this all sounds so melodramatic but so was the big bang so bear with me!). I thought: why not? A whole series on dance would open so many more doors for my girls. But this time, I think I’ll give them their own names. They deserve it. So here, my dabble with dance begins. Who knows where it will go? I don’t and I’m glad about it. (more…)
Filed under: Derwent Journal Three, Sketchbook | Tags: balloons, derwent journal, gravity, humor, Sketchbook
Filed under: Home | Tags: eleven, homes, interior, portrait, possession, tape, yellow
ghena called her yellow tape portrait 'sophie'. i really like the name
This painting was very impersonally titled ‘eleven‘. It was part of my Yellow Tape Portrait collection. Thanks to Ghena El Hariri, she has a home and a name now: Sophie. What more can anyone ask for? About the placement of this painting, Ghena said, ‘Finally I managed to send you a photo of Sophie “fi sidr el dar”! Couldn’t cover up the AC shaft opening. We didn’t hang the AC for fear of Sophie catching cold”. Sophie, you are in a good home. Congratulations!
Filed under: Exhibitions, Gallery Tilal, Stories of Eves, Stories of Eves|Exhibition, The Kuwait Scene | Tags: alkandari, Exhibition, Gallery Tilal, mohammed, opening, photos, stories of eves
And another opening passes by. I wish I could have enjoyed it more but I was (and still am) in the midst of nursing what feels like a stomach virus again. For someone who takes pleasure in food, that sucks. I hope, however, that for those of you who didn’t attend, you enjoy the photos taken last night by my brother, Mohammed. For those of you who were there, I thank you. It means a lot to me that you came. (more…)
Filed under: Postcards | Tags: blood, ink, period, postcard, scrap, watercolor
Most of the time I sketch my girl first and add the colored bits later. This time the splotches and drips were there already. I just took my pen and drew my girl around them.
Filed under: Derwent Journal Three, Sketchbook | Tags: derwent, hill, ink, isograph, journal, Marathon, Sketchbook, unicycle
Filed under: Postcards | Tags: dream, fear, forest, juniper, midnight, nightmare, tree
she reads between the trees
Forests both mesmerize and terrify me, depending on the time of day. Here, my girl takes a midnight stroll through a dense family of juniper trees.
Filed under: Eventful, The Kuwait Scene | Tags: ahmed al-adwany, al funoon, Exhibition, hall, Paintings, retrospective, thuraya al-baqsami
- sergei, 1977, pastels on paper: it is a common (and quite ignorant) misperception in this part of the world that artists who take any path other than the realist one, can’t draw. these are the laypeople. i don’t think they understand that shifting away from realism is a choice the artist makes and not just an easy way out. for these people, none of which will ever look at this blog, so this comment is totally futile: look, thuraya al-baqsami can indeed draw!
Way back in 1991, I borrowed a book from a friend. The title was roughly Contemporary Art in the Islamic World. I remember going through it and systematically writing down the names of the artists whose works I liked; one of the names I wrote down was Thuraya Al-Baqsami’s. I remember her painting in the book of Muscovite rooftops. I thought, how cool-as a Kuwaiti artist-that her work was in a book of such caliber, and wondered if it would ever be me (still working on it. Still working on it.) I never, ever thought that I’d see her work in real life, let alone meet her (and even travel with her! If you want to have a crazy fun time, you travel with Thuraya Al-Baqsami!).
Congratulations to you, Thuraya. I throw you kisses! (more…)
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: adjective, color, definition, dictionary, notebook, noun, spiral, words
I love words and I love dictionaries. I love association and I love drawing. Today, I mushed the four together to come up with this, a new series: five random words.
Filed under: dar al-funoon, FA Gallery, The Kuwait Scene, The Sultan Gallery | Tags: art, dar al-funoon, fa, gallery, halim al karim, irani, jahed sarbolan, katayoun karami, mohamad mehdi tabatabaie, shideh tami, shima esfandiary
6:30 pm: fa gallery: body language|in the eyes of the iranian artists, in this picture acrylics and LED by mohamad mehdi tabatabaie
7:15:dar al funoon gallery, works by halim al karim
10:00 am: the sultan gallery: 'the children of gaza' featuring limited edition prints by dia azzawi
Filed under: Derwent Journal Three, Sketchbook | Tags: collection, derwent, friends, ink, journal, new, people, Sketchbook
people picked, pricked and pickled
Filed under: Rants & Raves, Z's Painting by G | Tags: child, drawing, painting, rain, rants, raves, said
zainab's painting by ghadah
I don’t know if it’s the rain (I do cherish this kind of weather, but perhaps not for too long), or if I miss my children, or I have the misfortune of dealing daily with unprofessional, inconsiderate fuckers, but I’ve been pretty maudlin all day. I don’t think it’s the rain. And at the end of a pretty fruitless morning of driving around and getting nothing constructive done, it just felt natural and necessary to paint a picture. I wanted to do something that was so removed from myself so I started off with some haphazard drawings and somehow ended up channeling my ten-year-old daughter and her happy, innocent drawings.
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Filed under: Sketchbook, Spiral Sketchbook | Tags: balloon, naughty, rude, Sketchbook, spiral, voyeurism
Filed under: Eventful, Stories of Eves | Tags: alkandari, eve, Exhibition, gallery, ghadah, stories, tilal
Ten days left. Or is it nine? I’m starting to feel a bit of the buzz I usually get a few weeks before any exhibition. The butterflies I usually reserve for opening day. That’s when I can’t sit still and it’s best to avoid me. Cross the bridge for a map to Gallery Tilal. (more…)
