Different Painting Styles

I love to paint. I love the way the pain spreads, I love the brush strokes, and I absolutely love the intricate designs that paint can make. These next two paintings are ones that I've done, taking advantage of that intricacy. It's also very inspired by indian-style designs that have many different shapes and colors going at the same time. I also experimented with breaking the space up on a canvas in a geometric way, with some interesting diagonals. Both of these are done with Acrylic paints on canvas

La illaha il Allah Muhammad ur Rasoolullah
'There is no God but God and Muhammad is the Messenger of God'
8x24

Bismillah Hir Rahman Nir Raheem'In the Name of God, Most Beneficent, Most Merciful'
10x10

My artwork is usually very colorful and whimsical, and I like to experiment further with that style, while still maintaining the sophistication of the piece. In this next painting, I combined two painting styles: organic and geometric. The border is very organic and flows from one space to another and is very light and airy. The inner portion of the painting is much more rigid, but I love the effect that it created. The use of the metallic gold paint brought the border, the inner border and the lettering together cohesively. I made this painting for a client, as is now sold. It is done on canvas with Acrylic paint.

Ya Ali Madad'Oh Ali, Come to my Aid'
16x20

I recently tried my hand at glass paintings, after being inspired by some images of moroccan style jars that I thought were really beautiful. So I bought some old glass vases and containers from a flea market near my aunts house in West Virginia, painted them with glass paints and baked them. I had a hard time finding puff paint that would stay on glass and weren't meant to peel off. I ended up ordering some  Jones Tones Puff Paints in gold and silver, and went on my way. This was the end result:

The puff paints were a bit sticky even when they were completely dry, but a layer of modge podge pretty much took care of that. 

So now that I had this paint, I thought I'd see what would happen if I put it on a canvas. I just did a plain, gradient Acrylic color, a calligraphy and a little design. Kept it simple. This one was more popular than I had expected, so it might be something I'll explore again. 

Bismillah Hir Rahman Nir Raheem

"In the Name of God, Most Beneficent, Most Merciful"

12x12

So then for this one, I thought I'd go the opposite direction, and do something a little more modernistic. I had a lot of fun with this one, smudging colors and blending. The color scheme is a little more pastel-ish than I usually do. My friend Saba saw this one and claimed it right away! And it's so perfect for her. If you ever meet her, you can see how it fits her personality so well. Vibrant and spunky mixed with some serious iman (mA!). This is done with Acrylics on canvas.

Allahu Akbar'God is Great'
8x8

Finally, this last one was just a mix of intricate and funky. Since this canvas was so small I just did most of it as a border and layered the paint on pretty thick, so you can see the brush strokes in the center. I found a variation of this calligraphy online and tweaked it a bit to make it my own. This is done with acrylics on canvas. 

Allahu
8x8

My First Ever Post

Hello World!

This right here is a great feat for me. I've been thinking for ages how fun it would be to blog about something, realized I had nothing to blog about, and then continued to go about my life. That is until my cousin recently gave me the suggestion to blog about my art work, and then it clicked. So, here I am. 

A little bit about me, 

I have always been an artist. My parents and grandparents have videos and pictures of me as a little kid drawing all over papers, writing my own stories just so I could illustrate them and lots of other normal little kid things. My interest in art however never really subsided. I started off college as a Fashion Design major, but soon learned that although I loved the drawing and designing part of it, I was probably the world's worst sewer, so then I took a 180 degree turn and began to study elementary education. 

The Fashion Design part of my life plays a big part in my artistic development because of one amazing thing: Markers. Yup, through my years as a Fashion student, I discovered the wonder and amazement of Prisma Color markers, that I use for absolutely everything. It's become a mild obsession, and my siblings and many family members now know that if anyone needs markers, I'm probably where they should go. If you've never used them, I would highly suggest it. Yes, they're a little pricy, but the quality is amazing and they last for a long time, completely worth it.

Somewhere at some point in college, it must have been a winter break around freshmen or sophomore year, I started painting arabic calligraphies. I should also probably mention that I'm Muslim, which is where the interest in Arabic Calligraphy began. I realized that this type of art could not only be beautiful but it was also very rewarding. It gives my art a purpose, and having a purpose is one of the most inspiring things for me. Purposes are what give me my greatest ideas. I was also incredibly incredibly inspired by my aunt, Salma Arastu, who has become a very well known artist (salmaarastu.com) and also does beautiful arabic calligraphies among many other things. 

My family is originally from Hyderabad, India which has been widely known for its arts, be it poetry, painting, etc. This could be a reason for all the encouragement and support I've gotten over the years. A lot of my art is also inspired by Indian designs and colors. I love anything bright, vivid, and filled with patterns. I always use acrylic paints because I love the way they layer on top of each others and the many layered patterns you can use with them. But, I'm sure there will be more on that later. 

Well, I think that's it for now, 

Keep the creative juices flowing, and Art Away!