Snow White Before the Apple
Posted on February 8, 2010 3 Comments
snow white before the apple, 2009, acrylic and oil pastels on canvas, approx 130cm x 240cm
I painted Snow White Before the Apple about a year ago. I enjoyed working on it and absolutely loved it when it was done. It also looked absolutely lovely in my home and again, I was sad to part with it. Read More
Event
Posted on February 8, 2010 2 Comments
the girl & her giant schnauzer iber, 2009, acrylic on canvas, 100cm x 120cm
“The Girl & Her Giant Schnauzer Iber is a painting I did especially for this auction. I was asked to participate at a time when I was seriously contemplating adopting a cat, so I had animals on my mind. Now, after weeks of both failed and successful photo sessions involving a humongous dog, a few days of painting and adopting my own cat Duncan from the Animal Friends League of Kuwait, I feel that somehow the painting, since conception, has come full circle. It started off instantly with an idea to paint one of my favorite people with her ‘son’, Iber. That idea percolated in my head for weeks before I finally put brush to canvas. As I started painting, my idea changed to perhaps including Duncan in the painting, to possibly keeping it just about the dog, then it became about the dress, and finally back to Iber and his ‘mommy’. I’m lucky to have been given the opportunity to do this, if only to paint such a magnificent animal and his equally magnificent mother.”
The painting is lot #3. I am SO EXCITED about the viewing and a little terrified about the auction. But I think it will be a lot of fun.
Under My Ophelia
Posted on February 8, 2010 1 Comment
a few days ago ophelia found a new home. that same day my daughter asked me if i remembered the time when ophelia had a horse. i had totally forgotten
My daughter’s question prompted me to search my photos of Ophelia in progress. I was shocked at the pictures I found, and flooded by a deluge of memories and emotions ranging from sadness to whimsy. The photos have made me realize how ephemeral my works, in their varioius stages, can be and why it is essential that I photograph them. The story of Ophelia is deeper and more complicated than my memory has allowed. It’s a story of anger and short-lived forgiveness. It’s a story of internal war and temporary peace. And it’s a story of a one-day horse. Read More
Um Kulthum
Posted on February 8, 2010 Leave a Comment
um kulthum, 2010, acrylic on canvas, approx. 135cm x 250cm
Black Sketchbook|Florentine Swirls
Posted on February 7, 2010 Leave a Comment
fun with a florentine quill
48 Women, a Kitten & Pele|Part Four & Last
Posted on February 7, 2010 Leave a Comment
36 eyes staring, 2005, acrylic on canvas (four paneled approx. 180cm x 240cm)
Yasmine, Some Disjointed Mannequins & Me
Posted on February 7, 2010 Leave a Comment
yasmine, what have you done?
Last Ramadan, Yasmine and I visited Dar Al-Funoon at the last minute to check out the Noon Collection. Unfortunately, the skirt that Yasmine had seen in the catalog and loved had been sold. But when life gives you lemons, you make lemon merangue pie, or in our case, try on some other lovely outfits and bug Vessant who was trying in vain to put the mannequins away. Read More
Sketchbook Twenty Ten Page 56 & Page 57
Posted on February 5, 2010 Leave a Comment
page 56. the drop
Ooh I hate it when I make these onsite mistakes! I don’t usually go back to old posts but I decided to do it with this one for some reason. It’s supposed to say ‘on’, not ‘to’. Damn!
Read More
48 Women, a Kitten & Pele|Part Three
Posted on February 5, 2010 1 Comment
monochromatic, 2006, acrylic on canvas, 91cm x 152cm
Two Paintings
Posted on February 4, 2010 Leave a Comment
drum, 2007, acrylic on canvas, 100cm x 120cm
Aunty With a Striped Shirt
Posted on February 4, 2010 1 Comment
aunty with striped shirt, 2007, acrylic on canvas
Black Sketchbook|Drawings & Scraps
Posted on February 4, 2010 Leave a Comment
the most important building in the world
These are three pages from my black sketchbook. I bought the sketchbook a few years ago because I liked the novelty of it, and I knew that I would have to somehow work around the problem of drawing on black pages. One of the ‘projects’ I gave myself was this one: I asked my friend SB to cut me some snippets from the paper he had just finished reading (which was The Guardian Weekly). Then I gave myself the challenge of ‘ad libbing’ some sketches while incorporating into them the scraps he gave me. I think I did a pretty good job. I was pretty happy with the results anyway. Read More
48 Women, a Kitten & Pele|Part Two
Posted on February 4, 2010 Leave a Comment
iris, 2005, acrylic on canvas
Sketchbook Twenty Ten Page 53, Page 54 & Page 55
Posted on February 4, 2010 Leave a Comment
page 53. on her way to the latest mall to shop for the latest fashions
page 54. complicated cup of coffee
Forty-Eight Women, a Kitten & Pele|Part One|The Aunties With Their Shirts
Posted on February 3, 2010 Leave a Comment
aunty with a psychedelic shirt, 2005, acrylic on canvas, 91cm x 152cm
This collection started with a painting I had done much earlier and stored away. It amazed me how much my style evolved the more paintings I did in this series. When I went back to the one that inspired the rest, I was shocked at how different it looked from its sisters. Nonetheless, I included it in the collection because it was an important driving force behind my 2006 exhibition at Dar Al-Funoon: Forty-Eight Women, a Kitten & Pele. Read More
The Decobitch
Posted on February 3, 2010 Leave a Comment
spoiled rotten
I need wall art. I have too many of my own pieces up, can’t afford other people’s work and my friends and family won’t draw for me. So I end up doing stuff like this to put up on my bare walls. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy collaging and decopatching as much as anyone’s grandma, but I just feel like I’m overdoing it a little. And yet again, I find myself hanging my own work up on the walls. At least I can pretend it’s not mine.
This lady is the decobitch. She’s a little robotic. And very emotionally and physically bloated. She can’t get up because she’s wearing too many layers and her thoughts and worries stifle her. Her chair is completely unergonomic but somehow comfortable (it cancels out the unnatural curves and anatomy of her clunky clothes). This woman is not happy. She can never be. And her summer is almost over.
Pretty Green Bullet|The Origin of a Name
Posted on February 2, 2010 Leave a Comment
I made this five second clip while fooling around with my scanner and stop-motion animation using Powerpoint. It was the inspiration for the name of this blog. The green bullets are actually wall plugs in case nobody noticed. The clip is called Ina & the Green Bullets
Eek! The video hasn’t uploaded right. Hmm. This will be fixed soon (fingers crossed and hope hope hoping!)
Homes: Sarah Al-Hamad|London, England
Posted on February 2, 2010 Leave a Comment
the fly, 2005, acrylic on canvas
I think that where a person chooses to hang a painting says a lot about her relationship with it. It also serves as a continuation to the work itself. Sarah has placed her lady at one end of a cabinet, with a simple lamp at the other. Before I saw this, I never felt that my works would suit a minimalistic setting. But I really love this. It’s put the painting into a whole new context for me. I do hope to visit this particular one some day.
Homes: Laura Boushnak|Pristina, Kosova
Posted on February 2, 2010 2 Comments
yellow girl, 2009, acrylic on canvas (bottom left-NOT to be mistaken with the post-it note above it)
When photographer, and dear friend, Laura Boushnak visited Kuwait, she was so generous with her time, taking photos of me in preparation for my Yellow Tape Portraits exhibition, and consequently during set up and the exhibition itself. I couldn’t see her off with nothing so I painted her a picture.
Homes: Noor Alzabin
Posted on February 2, 2010 Leave a Comment
little picture with no name, 2009, pen & ink on paper. i love the textures in this photo
Homes: Mai Al-Nakib & Adeeb Abu-Ghazaleh
Posted on February 2, 2010 Leave a Comment
bird's eye drummers, 2003, acrylic on canvas
Mai and Adeeb’s painting is accompanied by two sculptures by Abbas Mallek on the left of the photo. Mai wrote to me that it ‘plays the music for Abbas Mallek’s wonderful dancing Kuwaiti man and woman’.
Homes: Farah Behbehani
Posted on February 2, 2010 Leave a Comment
heart, 2007, acrylic on canvas
This painting hangs in the dining room of Farah Behbehani’s home. I love the way the carpet echoes the colors of my girl. The painting itself is one of a kind. I had never (and probably never will) painted what I call tantric lines on a canvas before. These lines emanate from another face within the main character. The face is the heart and the lines are the arteries and capillaries which sustain the rest of the body and mind. I was very emotionally distraught when I painted it a few years ago and I think it shows. But somehow, the painting works in a tranquil setting such as this. And I’m very flattered that Farah has one of my works because I am a huge admirer (and possessive owner) of her beautiful calligraphy book, The Conference of the Birds.
Sketchbook Twenty Ten Pages 49-52
Posted on February 2, 2010 Leave a Comment
page 49. she's about to get lucky
Homes: Mohammed Alkandari & Jana Alnaqeeb
Posted on February 2, 2010 Leave a Comment
maradona, 2008, acrylic on canvas. he stands like a king between two barbershop chairs
I’m introducing the Home section here (which was part of my now defunct blogspot site). Because when I am parted with a painting I feel a little gut-wrenched, I ask for it to be photographed in its new home. And to my delight, many have obliged, bless them. This is the first installment, the home of my brother Mohammed, his wife Jana and their giant schnauzer Iber. Read More
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