I love looking at camels. They have such expressive faces, and some can get quite silly, as the light colored one on the left of the picture shows. And while I am not usually terribly interested in portrait painting, I thought that it might be an interesting twist to paint portraits of camels.


So this is my first attempt at painting a camel portrait. I think I'll call her Zelda. Oil on canvas. She still needs work, but it has been fun painting her goofy expression, and I think I'll make it a point to take more camel pictures for future projects.

Karma

This is Karma! Dec. 26, 2010

Jan. 7, 2011

Jan 12, 2011 Look at those long legs! She is a regular weed!

Three weeks ago, my husband, daughter, and I went out to the desert for the day. We wanted to visit Al-Barrah, the village where my husband was born. On the way, we passed a few other small villages and being armed with my camera, we stopped to take many pictures. Many of the smaller villages in Saudi Arabia have been all but abandoned in recent years, and there are a lot of interesting ruins to wander through and look at.
At probably the third place we stopped, I had barely gotten out of the car, and I could hear the cries of a puppy. The desert is full of wild saluqis, and I was a little leery of poking my head into the room of an abandoned home to see the puppies that were definitely in there, for fear of Momma dog biting my face off. My husband had no such fear, and ran to take a look, and what he found was three starving puppies, not more than three weeks old. I guessed the Momma had been hit by a car, or some such thing, and after debating it for 20 minutes, we decided to take the puppies home to try to save them. Sadly, the two little cream colored males didn't even make it to the house. The sand colored female, however, not only survived, but has thrived, and is now as demanding as any puppy can be! Look at how far she has come....

I've been messing around with some jewelry designs. I love copper wire, so it gets used a lot, but I also use silver and base wires. I hammer, twist, bend, and add beads. In many cases, texture from the hammer is part of the design. The assembly line, machine made look of department store jewelry is much less interesting to my eye.

How d'ya like them apples? In these earrings, I used silver filled wire, ceramic beads, and findings.
This set is made of 18 guage copper wire, hammered to give shape and texture. The chain, the S hook, and the ear wires all all hand forged.
Copper and jade work so well together. For this pair, I do think I might go back and put an antique patina on the copper to take the shine away.
This by far is one of my favorites. I used a very thin copper wire, doubled and twisted, to make the chain and the earrings.

This past month has gone by so fast! I have been taking loads of pictures, of food, of the sights of Riyadh, of coffee shops........ Yet for some reason I have not been able to upload them onto my blog! To top that off, every time I go to sign in, I struggle, because my site comes up in Arabic! Wow, this project is going to be a test of my will. : ) Luckily, I am fairly strong willed.

The Year of Living Creatively

It's been a year, yes, I admit it,,,, over a year in fact, since I have written. I'd like to say it's because I have been too busy with classes, and with the house and the family and with art..... and to an extent I have been. But truely, it is just because I haven't managed my time well. Sad.
So, now I have graduated with my AFA. And I have moved back to Saudi Arabia. What next? Well, ideally, I'd like to do nothing but art, (painting and jewelry), and writing for the next year or so. Realistically speaking, however, I know that I have a lot of work to do in the house and will not have nearly as much time as I need to do all I want. It was as I was contemplating this situation and wondering how to make time for creativity that I came up with the idea of combining all I do, endeavor to do it creatively, and documenting it. To try to live for the next year in a very creative way. I'll keep trying to find time for painting and the rest, but the family must eat, and cooking can be an artistic outlet also, right?
My timing couldn't be worse. Ramadhan starts tomorrow, and I want to start a project that, theoretically at least, I will work on every day for the next year or more. But who chooses these things? The muse comes when and in what form she chooses.... All I can do is try to keep up, to show up with an open mind, and accept the challenge. And I implore you, dear friends, be patient with me. This is another learning experience for me. After all, I am still Aisha........ Becoming.

Boring old coffee pot...

For our final painting this quarter, the assignment was to take an every day object, blow it up in size till it was nearly unrecognizable, and paint it in 'discordant' colors. I chose an Arabic coffee pot, and at first my teacher said it just wouldn't work. She said it would be nearly impossible to make a coffee pot interesting to look at. She did say, however, that I was welcome to prove her wrong. I was terrified at the prospect, but a challenge is a challenge.

On critique day I sat my painting up with everyone elses, in a large semi-circle around the room, and we started to discuss each persons painting, right down the line. When she got to my coffee pot, my teacher said "Who would have known that a boring old coffee pot could be so interesting. You really did prove me wrong, and I love it when people can do that." I was on top of the world that day, and I have signed up for oil painting again in the Fall!

Take a look at my 'boring old coffee pot' and let me know what you think.

Whew!!!

I haven't been very good at keeping up with my posts. In my defense, I have had a crazy 8 weeks, and just haven't had any time to think or breath. Hopefully, things have calmed down a little, and I will try to be better.

Now, on to the good stuff, this is the mosque interior I painted for, yes, my oil painting class. It looks a little different in the picture than it does on the wall, which is interesting. Here it is almost glowing, while on the wall it is a shade darker. Funny what camera lighting can do.

I actually painted this some weeks ago, and have already had a new assignment and finished it, but so far haven't gotten pictures taken of it. I will also get my screen prints back this week, and will get them photographed and on the blog as well. In the meantime, I will be thinking of projects to do over the Summer. I can't just sit around doing nothing, can I?