Joy of Being

Feb 19, 2021

It’s been a while since I have posted on this platform and I’m pleased to share some of my thoughts on one of my series: JOY of BEING.  It’s a collection inspired by the beautiful faces I see everyday.  Some of them are very captivating and I can study them for hours and imagine the many life experiences in their faces. Some faces are like masks; a lot of emotions are hidden behind them. Whatever the story, every face has its uniqueness.

Portraits to paint are complicated. It’s very hard to capture the emotions that hide behind a face; The most challenging and interesting part of a face are the eyes.  The eyes bring out the inner emotions and feelings of a person. As they say eyes are like a window to a person’s soul.  But how the eyes in a painting turn out can impact the story the image is telling.  Therefore, even if I base a painting on something I have seen, even though its almost identical to the original, it has a different story to tell simply by the way the eyes turn out.

I paint on different surfaces, some of my recent work has been on tiles. The creative process in painting a face is quite simple; After I decide what surface to paint on, I sketch the face lightly with a pencil and then as I go along I decide what colours to use and what medium to go for.  I usually enjoy mixed medium as this gives me the result I am looking for. Sometimes I am completely lost but I am always surprised by the purity of the finished face and very so often they turn out to be like someone I know.  

I always try to paint a joyful face, solely because I believe that whatever you hang on your walls should give out an energy that can instantly lift you up.  I take joy in adorning these faces with bright colours and reflect the energy of the beings I imagine.  Hopefully this write up will make you go back to the gallery and enjoy my paintings.