Cultural Re-Expressions Revisited|The Miniatures
the thief in the morning, 2010, acrylic on canvas, 25cm x 35cm
A week ago, I got a call from Dr. Tim Sullivan. He said he liked my paintings from the 2004 Cultural Re-Expressions exhibition, but that his walls in Utah weren’t big enough for the large-scale works. So he commissioned me to make smaller ones. Tiny ones, to be exact. Tiny for my big, fat fingers. But I did it, and really enjoyed working on the four paintings you see here.
When I started this project, I had a certain vision in mind. I knew, however, that the direction of my paintings would take a turn to something completely different to what I originally imagined. The boy and his young love became a boy and his mischievous little sister; a sister who stole his marbles yet whom he was very protective over. It became a story about a day in the carefree lives of a pre-oil era Kuwaiti boy and a girl, when days were simple and nights were full of ghosts and imagination.
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- scattered marbles early next morning, 2010, acrylic on canvas, 25cm x 35cm
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- dancing ghosts during the maghreb prayer, 2010, 25cm x 35cm
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- dama at sundown, 2010, acrylic on canvas, 25cm x 35cm
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- the thief in the morning, 2010, acrylic on canvas, 25cm x 35cm
Excellent works. Very evocative of the past! Dr Sullivan is a fortunate man!
i feel lucky too for this opportunity. there is something so intimate about painting on a canvas this small. i really got engrossed in the story i was telling.
Do you work differently in this scale? I mean, I guess you must do, your works are usually on a larger scale. Was it very different?
it’s very different. almost literally, i felt myself shrinking. my brushes got smaller, my posture more closed and the space around me decreased immensely. there is a restriction to painting this small (small only by my standards, mind you, so it’s just really a big deal to me!). i feel much more free when exploring a bigger canvas. but at the same time, as i said earlier, there is something very intimate and cosy about working on a smaller scale painting. it’s almost like handling a newborn child.