My Lebanon

Title: My Lebanon.

Year: January 1999.

Materials: Acrylic on Canson carton.

Behind the Brush: The Cedars: the symbolic tree of Lebanon. The sign of the Lebanese’s

endurance, the ever-youthful spirit of the citizens, and the white-haired cranium after many years of war, civil war, and chaos. The blue horizon is calmly portraying how our dreams appear to be when we think of an ideal moment about something we like. Two houses and more are among the snow waiting visitors and expecting company, warm conversations, booze, and maybe some things more.
The fence is Reality in its abstract/concrete existence, separating the greenish trees and the cultivated pastures and the bare trees express the state of man in front of the changing nature around him and his volition to surpass and outcome every obstacle.

Techniques: (1) Alla Prima

Alla Prima is an Italian term meaning ‘at first’, and it describes the paintings completed in one session. This necessarily involves working wet into wet rather than allowing a first layer to dry before others are added. The essential characteristic of alla prima is that there is no initial underpainting as such, although artists often make a rapid underdrawing in pencil or charcoal to establish the main lines.

After the introduction of tubed paint in the mid-19th century, artists were able to work outdoors more easily. This plein air painting, as it is called, first undertaken artists as Constable and Corot, and later the Impressionists, established the rapid and direct alla prima approach as an accepted technique. Hitherto oil painting had been largely a studio activity as pigment had to be ground by hand, and paintings were built up slowly in a series of layers.

The direct method creates a lively and free effect that is seldom seen in more deliberate studio paintings, which is clearly shown in the work of Constable. Working alla prima requires some confidence, as each patch of color is laid down more or less as it will appear in the finished picture. Any modifications and reworking must be kept to a minimum so that the fresh effect is not destroyed.

It is a good idea to use a limited palette, as too wide a choice of colors may tempt you to put in too much detail – there is no room for nonessentials in alla prima painting. It is usually easiest to leave the lightest and darkest passages to the end so that the brush strokes used for these lie undisturbed on top of adjacent colors without mixing and muddying.

All my paintings were done through this technique. That is why they give the impression as if they are preludes to paintings more than completely finished ones. But, in fact, the technique enabled me to freely express myself without much focus upon deliberately added details that would be truly for a genuine artistic reasons, not for merely expressing one's direct ideas and images!

Of course, my brush is still at its embryonic stage. There are many mistakes .. many faults .. lots of misplaced strokes .. or dull colors .. but, I am in the process of becoming better, and I wanted here to share my beginnings .. as well as I am intending to share - later on - my masterpieces!!

Freedom

Title: Freedom.
Year: February 2000.
Materials: Acrylic on Canson carton.
Behind the Brush: Three horses having three colors. Three promising runners. Three vivid desert-dwellers. Three on their way to adventure and maybe more. Life with horses has another taste and a very different flavor. When you are near such powerful beasts, you ought to act as a powerful person. When you feel their unbounded freedom, you unleash your lurking liberty!!
I have been always fond of the Cowboys life, but had no chance to experience anything related to their mode of life. Yet, we always tend to dream of what we do not possess ... this what makes a dream a dream.
So, this painting is a dream. The three-colored horses represent the most famous colors of horses, thus, representing life in the desert and what the term connotes.

Xanadu

Title: Xanadu.
Year: December 2002.
Materials: Acrylic on Canson carton.
Behind the Brush: Winter of 2002, I was in Bher Saf. Our rented house was next to a small orchid. It was a bleak week. Snow was nonstop. I was alone, with my books and other tools for entertainment.
Xanadu is a fictional name of a place mentioned in Coleridge’s famous poem: Kubla Khan. I was reading the poem from a giant Anthology Book.
Again, snow drifting, mountains high, a shivering cat, a giant poetry book, some frozen clothes on a washing-thread, snow drifting, warmth inside, the silent and tranquil atmosphere, the forever working figure with his sleeves uplifted although snow was drifting … all shared to draw a mystical mood of keenness, fantasy, and expectancy.
I have to note that this is not a completed painting. The idea extends to further details, but I deemed it best to stop at this stage.

Mount Terrain

Title: Mount Terrain.
Year: November 1998.
Materials: Acrylic on Canson carton.
Behind the Brush: A visit to a friend doesn't always mean sipping coffee and having a chatter; it could greatly mean a relaxing moment spent in stretching one’s abilities of contemplating in the pursuit of absorbing the panoramic greens extended in front of the sight.
When I was in Bikfaya, I used to visit a dear friend living in the nearby villages. His house is wonderful, not because it was old, nor because it has high ceilings, and bricks, and … but because its view is amazing. The mountain is reaching the sky, the clouds are descending to whisper a tale to the ground, the trees are leaning to the plains to print a nightly kiss, and all in all portray a magnificent natural accorded union.
The painting could be deemed as a depiction of greens, whether it is on the mountain or on earth, but the idea was to focus upon what we daily see without recognition, we daily pass by without appreciation, we daily view without sensing the soothing message displayed by nature around us.

Upon A Chess Floor

Title: Upon A Chess Floor.
Year: July 1999.
Materials: Acrylic and oil on canvas.
Behind the Brush: When we are trapped in a two-walled room with no window or pane to pass through, we tend to draw a door. The door would lead us to another, and when we face it, we draw another. The continuous drawing of the door with the continuous confrontation of the wall is a common life-felt theme, but what makes it original and authentic is the number of risks faced, kinds of quandaries challenged, and the heaps of dangerous verdicts and judgments one has to make and make with haste to level up at the right time.
In this dear-to-heart painting, I am trying to give a three-dimensional scope of life. It came to actuality when I was with my cousin in Aleppo. We had heard that there was an old Chess Coffee-Shop. The idea was tempting, especially when we still in the mood for playing chess. We sought the cafe, found it, climbed its wide stairs and were welcomed by a youngster. He led us to a large room filled with several chess tables. Men, smoke, old chess and backgammon’s pieces, the fresh smell of tea, the burnt coffee … all combined to create an infinite impression of going back in time. We sat, ordered two large tea cups, and asked for chess pieces. I won the first turn. I won the second. I won the third. My cousin was angry and mockingly called me a cheater, (because I tricked him in the second match). I smiled and simply replied: If I cheated in the second, what about the first and the third?! He stopped arguing, and we changed the spot. We never entered that Chess coffee shop again!
If three successes are too much, two will always do. If two are beyond what we do expect, let us focus upon one and enlarge it as much as we can to entertain ourselves with our triumph.

Daylight At Souk

Title: Day light At Souk

Year: October 1998.

Materials: Acrylic on Canson carton.

Behind the Brush: They say: Downtowns are the Mirrors of Cities. I say: Marketplaces are the pure Echo of them. And this is what mostly strikes the attention of a tourist or a foreigner.
I have been in this Souk many times. It is located in one of the Lebanese cities. The outer appearance gives you the feeling that you are ought to put your advancement and modernity in a small bag at its threshold for his civility. Then, you have a put on an old outfit to walk inside and mingle: with the dirty-footed boys, with the sellers spread on the narrow sides of the streets, with the lost type of women, and you got to stand stiff in front of the seductive proposals of the shops’ owners along with the persisting askance of beggar or tramps.
On the other hand, when you decide to enter, you need to pay attention of your exist-route, for an arcade could usher you into a lane where there are many arcades leading to many roads, making you surf the city but from under not above, until you reach an exist, which is truly far from your entrance point!
Although marketplaces have to be crowded, I tended to lessen the number of attendants as an invitation for the old rocks, torn tents, broken balconies, barred entries, and ancient arcades to share with the people walking and strolling and sitting in telling the story in one harmonious tone.

Drag Your Heels

Title: Drag Your Heels.
Year: October 1998.
Materials: Acrylic on Canson carton.
Behind the Brush: The rumpus Beirut. The stiff smoky night life of coffee shops. The tension felt, the awkwardness sensed, and the anticipation received when you find out that your table-mate in an open cafe is too attractive. How many looks are going to be shot? How many messages are going to be sent? How many dreams are going to create for you an amiable flying-carpet? And how many moves and gestures are you going to understand and most importantly misunderstand? The boy behind the Imposing Character is a familiar figure. I can almost name him, with his pretty soft face, and his incredible irresistible looks!! Yet, the question is: is he going to be Lucky this night?

Sail Into Hope

Title: Sail Into Hope.

Year: September 1998.

Materials: Acrylic on Canson carton.

Behind the Brush: The idea was born when I was strolling by the seashore in Tyre. The coast line in my area is incredibly catchy. I used to go there whenever I feel a little bit agitated from something, or disturbed at home, or for only releasing one's caged feelings. Gazing at the waters was not only the cure, it was the scene of the fishermen, and the amazing sight of the small boats fleeing from the steep water to the areas filled with fish. The lightening that flashes from their eyes, the rays reflected at the surface of the boats, the glimmering surface of the sea ... all contribute to the Hope believed to reside upon the yoke of the Horizons .. the hope that with every moving wave, luck is approaching, fate is smiling, fish are gathering, gain is at reach!!