My studio is located in the first floor of my house.  It’s about 4 by 8 meters with high sloped ceiling with north light streaming from the high windows giving natural light throughout the day. A work table on the right side contains all my tools; brushes, paints, oils. On the floor you’ll see some of my recent paintings, some few paintings from the 90’s and also some of my first paintings, works I made when I was teenager, that I had brought back from my parents’ house. My studio is not only the place that belongs to me, it is also the place that I belong to. Fifteen years ago, my bedroom was my studio and I was living with my paintings that I got used to the smell of oil paint, turpentine and linseed oil. Oil paint was my first medium and still is until now. I wake up early morning to continue the painting I was working on, and I see the same painting before I close my eyes and sleep – a beautiful thing to start and end the day.

I started painting when I was a teenager and my works were very much influenced by surrealism. The fantasy world appealed to me and the romanticized figures has inspired me. Today the figure is still present in the work I create. However, they are abstractions in both figurative and conceptual often on themes revolving around human, ego, nature, woman. Creative spark comes to hit me anywhere, anytime. I can get inspired by the beauty of nature and I could be moved easily by anything could happen in my daily life, good or bad.

I didn’t study fine arts, I am a self-taught artist. I went to college and earned a degree in computer studies and while in school, I read books about art and philosophy. Back then I used to love to paint. I get a good feeling when I paint so I decide to learn the foundations in art. I joined the Bahrain Art Society in 1990 where I met professional Bahraini artists who studied fine arts abroad. I attended workshops conducted by the society and hanged out in the studio to listen to the daily discussions in art. These artists have given me guidance, valuable criticism and advice. One of the artists that I learnt a lot from was Rashid Al Khalifa.

For me painting is not dead, painting is alive all the time, and should be alive all the time, never dead. If you don’t feel that painting is alive, then there is no output from the painting and then it doesn’t mean anything. But also, it depends on the viewer, sometimes some people are not connected to art at all.

My goal is to be a full time artist and live the last years of my life just as an artist, that’s my dream. But if painting didn’t work for me, I would like to be an interior designer. It’s just like painting, only in 4-D.

The best advice I received was: Don’t plan your work, don’t follow systematic logic, and don’t think of exhibitions or the audience while working in your art. My painting price ranges for 1000BD – 3000BD ab