new painting } zeri girls
zeri girls, 2016, acrylic on canvas, 180 x 180cm
A week ago I got a call from my dear friend Laila Al-Hamad, letting me know that she was going to put on display, along with her Zeri handicrafts, a painting I did for her a while back, Drinks & Cigarettes. This was for an upcoming event, Kuwait Modern Heritage, to be held at Al Shaheed Park. So I thought, why not create a new painting inspired by the sadu design and have that on display instead? Why uproot hers?
The painting will be on display along with other heritage-related crafts, books and photography until the Ides of March (I can’t help calling it that. After my birthday and my children’s birthdays it’s my favorite date of the year).
The music in this video is More Than This by Roxy Music }
End of day one.
Me and the Zeri girls relax on a Friday. It’s cloudy and windy outside; my favorite weather conditions in Kuwait. Of course rain is good too.
Sunday morning I take a picture of them with their sisters. In an hour Gasper will arrive and transport them to Al Shaheed Park.
At the Park, Brownbook Magazine’s Rashid Binshabib and Laila slot the girls into place. The pavilions are beautiful and echo the architecture of our past. On the floor are some samples of sadu weavings, books, Zeri Crafts notebooks, mubkhars and bookmarks.
Doha’s Atlas Bookshop owner Fatma Al Sehlawi’s henna and haori kimono-like jacket are stunning!
Laila’s ‘Drinks & Cigarettes’. We decided that this one could go back home.
And they’re settled.
By the way, the notebook in the painting is my Zeri Crafts notebook.
Among Zeri Crafts cushions and tablecloths is my dear friend Sarah Al-Hamad’s book ‘Sun Bread and Sticky Toffee’.
Such a serene spot amidst the craziness of Kuwait City traffic, just minutes away.
The girls chat in the shadows.
The feminine and the masculine.
Interesting work, I see similarity in her eyes and the eyes of the subjects. Now that I reflect, I used to draw my women with huge innocent eyes reminiscent of my own. I wonder if it is the sub-concious at work? Or just what we know…
‘just what we know’…maybe that’s it. I do feel that who I am is reflected onto the women I paint, and vice versa.