mom & her four daughters, 2012, acrylic, collage and oil pastels on canvas, 135cm x 240cm
Done. I really enjoyed this painting because for the first time in a long time I felt like a child working on it. I didn’t think; I just painted, drew and scribbled. That sense of freedom is all I need right now, at a time when I feel trapped and slightly hopeless. (more…)
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Filed under: My Studio, PrettyGreenBullet|The Second Exhibition | Tags: frame
this is my framing station, right in the middle of my foyer. i borrowed this lovely table (and by lovely i mean homely on the outside and comely on the inside) from my mom
What a time to fall ill. Ugh! I’m not bed-ridden yet but it’s one of those things that if I put my head down to rest, I’ll be out all day. And I have so much work yet to do. So I’ll keep trudging until I won’t be able to function anymore. Or I’ll pop a pill and sleep. The latter seems like a more sensible choice. (more…)
Filed under: My Studio
Oh my God, what a crazy busy day. It’s going to be like this until Monday night, when I can finally hang loose and enjoy the show (yes, I do tend to be quite relaxed at my exhibitions). I haven’t produced anything today (well, not of the creative kind anyway), but I did drive around Kuwait getting things ready for the show, among other distractions such as trampolining with my crazy boys and sister, and climbing a tree. So I’m cheating here. I figure I need to put a post up because I’ve become kind of addicted to it.
- clockwise from top left: rotring ink, my isograph pens, UHU glue stick, my watercolor set and brushes, copic markers and cheapo nokia phone because I accidentally washed mine in the machine, canson drawing paper, a piece of newspaper in case i get the collage bug, my laptop, invitations to my show (not for survival, they just fit in really nicely in the grid), a stack including my journal, one of my other notebooks and a clipboard, and in the center the markers I use in my journal
Every Saturday I have a lady come in to clean my home. I rarely stay home when she’s here because I’m a little fastidious and I just cringe when I hear things being banged around. Plus I have a thing about strangers in my house cleaning my things. Anyway. Last Saturday, my son needed to be at his computer, which meant we had to stay in the house. So I decided that we’d stay in the TV room where his computer is. Which meant that whatever work I wanted to do had to be in that room. Which meant I had to pack a survival kit (we were going to be in there for hours as I asked her not to clean the room). So if anyone ever asks me what I’d take with me to a desert island, just look at the picture for the answer.
before: awfully cluttered and dirty wall
after: studio orange or or o-wrong?
Well, this is as much as I can do with it for the time-being. My advisor Yasmine’s at work today, so we decided that, because our goal has expanded to re-doing the whole area, including the living room and desk area, we’d wait for the weekend to proceed. One step at a time, and of course I’ll keep you posted.
i know this doesn't look like a grand mess, but it's a little too cluttered for my liking. and i do regret getting paint splattered on the walls
Today I started an ambitious project to get this section of my studio/home clutter-free. Because my workplace is more a home where I work than a studio I live in, I don’t like looking at this wall. So I solicited my sister Yasmine, who works at IKEA and has a good eye for interior detail. Oh, and she also happens to have a university degree in Interior Design. So the first thing on our ‘to do’ list was to paint the wall. I got her to do all the dirty bits while I splish-sploshed the wall in Thai Gold. What are little sisters for? (more…)
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Filed under: Home, My Studio | Tags: Home, interior, maysaa al-mumin, photography, possession, thomas modeen, waleed shaalan
maysaa al-mumin's fish. i love them!
I’m always waiting to receive photos of my works in their new homes (hint, hint to everyone who’s promised to send me a picture and hasn’t!). I do get so excited when I finally do. And then I thought: wait a minute, I’ve got my own little collection of paintings and photographs I’d like to share with the people whose works they are and everyone else who is interested in this sort of thing (and the people who promised to send me their pics and haven’t!).
There will shortly be a part II to this post because I’ve promised myself that I’d get some photographs framed and there’s a Sabhan Adam sketch that I absent-mindedly stored in one of my books while on the phone. (more…)
Filed under: My Studio, Stories of Eves | Tags: acrylic, eve, jana alnaqeeb, photography, stories, studio
eve takes a profile pic
Jana came in this morning to photograph the complete Stories of Eves collection. I tried to set up the studio the best way I could to achieve maximum efficiency. I love to feel that I can win over time, so I’m always finding ways to reduce it. So much that I think I can be a little annoying. Jana and I worked like a machine and I am so happy with the results. The photos do my paintings justice. Thank you, J!
- jana and the mob
Filed under: Gallery Tilal, My Studio, Stories of Eves | Tags: acrylic, color, eve, gallery, Kuwait, painting, psychedelic, rays, studio, tilal
i don't know if you remember, but i said i would do two more of these psychedelicky eves and i just finished numbers three and four last night. i'm sure they will look a lot more formidable with a less cluttered background (ie. in the gallery)! this morning, these four paintings acted as large, flat building blocks for me. the high-contrast, colorful rays lend themselves to being re-formatted and re-interpreted. as always, i'm turning things into fun and games. i'll never grow up
what a mess in my studio. i've been stuck on four paintings for one reason or another. technically, emotionally, supply-wise or a lack of time. four paintings. forever
Filed under: My Studio | Tags: acrylic, artist, Kuwait, painting, psychedelic, studio
i decided last night that i'm going to make a series of these psychedelic eves
I love Sunday mornings; just coming out of the weekend, everyone’s either at work or the malls, and I’m here in my space, enjoying some time to myself. And some time with my girls. (more…)
Filed under: Gallery Tilal, My Studio, Stories of Eves | Tags: acrylic, collage, frustration, gallery, painting, studio, tilal
this painting is THIS close to completion
Two of the three paintings I’m currently working on are giving me hell. If I could, I’d punch them both and get it over with. I’m struggling to get them out of the rut they’re in. But I know we’ll all pull through. Trust and patience. (more…)
Filed under: My Studio | Tags: eve, film, Kuwait, studio, television, variety
eve earlier this morning, before the arrival of the ktv crew
I was visited this morning by the Kuwait Television crew (Rashed Bader, Amani Al-Enezy, Ahmed Al-Mutairy and Abdulaziz Alhadad), who came in to film a segment for a new variety show to air next year. I was quite nervous because I had to talk about my work in Arabic, and unfortunately I’m not too familiar with the whole art jargon in any other language but English. The whole process took around two hours, and I was surprisingly easy with painting for film (I’ve done it before but that was me filming me). (more…)
Filed under: My Studio | Tags: collage, glue, ink, knife, Kuwait, pen, Postcards, process, watercolor
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(more…)Filed under: Cut & Paste, My Studio, Postcards, Watercolor | Tags: artist, Kuwait, studio, watercolors
all that’s missing from this picture is me and a gray, rainy sky. perfect
I can safely say that I see a photograph in everything, one way or another. There’s something to be said about capturing a moment on film, or in this case digitally. Time here’s been paused, and although you can’t see it, your mind will deduce that I took a break, got up, grabbed my camera and snapped this photo. This could have been a photo of anyone’s desk, of anything on the desk. I’m just so intrigued by the shadows at a particular moment and that somehow, even inanimate objects, in a photograph, are suspended in time. Now if only it would rain outside, my morning would be complete.
disruptive dancer
Filed under: Cut & Paste, Experimentation, Leafage, Lub-Dub, My Studio | Tags: caustic temple monkeys, graph paper, Kuwait, lub-dub, process, sketch, tattoo, tracing paper
the spiraling flower
When I started the video Lub-Dub, I decided to use tracing paper which I thought would be both versatile and practical (since I don’t use proper animation software). I also love the fierce crinkle, especially after being heavily sketched on (I did suffer not a paper scratch, but a vicious paper stab-never crumple up heavy tracing paper, it creates very, very sharp and dangerous points) As the work progressed, any discarded drawings were sloppily placed to my left, creating a glueless 3D collage. And as reliable as ever, my camera was to my right and ready to be clicked.
Filed under: Bulletin Board Madness, Cut & Paste, Ghosts of Things, Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon, My Studio, slideshows | Tags: board, bulletin, Kuwait
the first layer is a laminated picture by yousef abu-ghazaleh. the second layer is an un-stapled feathered crown by amalie modeen. next is the final stage from my slideshow 'balloons', and finally some cutouts from 'ghosts of things'
There’s something to say about random placement, even though I’m not sure if things are placed randomly by any adult. I have my handy, huge bulletin board in front of me which I occasionally find a place to tack items which are miscellaneous or difficult to place in a proper container. So I end up having this ever-changing board with infinite future possibilities. (more…)
I was lying down on my couch in the studio staring up at my board and thinking: hey, this would make a great game of i spy. So do you want to play? I spy… (more…)
Filed under: Laura Boushnak, My Studio | Tags: Kuwait, Laura Boushnak, painting, photography, Portraits, transport, Um Kulthum
looking very eerie behind the bubbles
Filed under: Cut & Paste, My Studio, The Early Bird | Tags: decopatch, Kuwait, Middle East, pen & ink, the early bird restaurant
I was commissioned by The Early Bird‘s Bianca Simonian to create two to three drawings/pictures for her new Jabriya branch. This project really inspired me and I could have gone on and on with it. I was doubly inspired by a new batch of decopatch paper I got for my friends Bettina and Lubna’s bead shop, Lb o J’zazz. I just feel like I got some of my Mojo back. Thanks, girls!
I have posted scanned images of the drawings. I’m sorry to say that the paper, because it was doused in decopatch glue, appears more warped in the pictures than in real life. So please use your imagination’s eraser and rub those crinkles out! (more…)
