Abbas Al Mosawi | Abbas Al Mosawi and the Colours of Bahrain

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Abbas Al-Mosawi learned his craft first under the tutelage of the Bahraini artist, Ahmed Baqer. Later as a student in Cairo he was attracted to the impressionist style of Sabry Ragheb, whom he considers to this day to be the prince of painters. The sources for his work derive principally from the old souk of Manama and its surrounding villages. Given the irreversible changes of the urban and rural landscape, his paintings provide the viewer with the necessary imaginative and aesthetic bridge to the past. Indeed such is the power of his native Bahrain on his artistic output that it colours both literally and figuratively his abstract paintings.

On the subject of preliminary sketches and studies

"I can't translate a photo into a painting; a photo is a complete painting in itself...I can, however, utilise the camera for documenting some of the scenes rather than sketching them during my trips. I then use photos as a visual reference, not to copy from, rather as an extension of my memory bank."

On the use of colour

“Colours are used not because they are true to nature, but because they are necessary to the particular picture.”

The role of the artist in society

“An artist is the symbol of his time. He represents the core of its worries, its hopes and dreams.”