Painting Exhibition by five women artists in Muscat

Five Muscat-based housewives have been making time to pursue their passion, which has now turned into forming a professional art group where they share their enthusiasm, knowledge, and art techniques with similarly eager people and learn new things. ‘Arabs Decorem’, as they call it, is conducting their second successful exhibition of paintings in Muscat. It is a riot of colours and ideas in the lobby of the City Seasons Hotel in Al Khuwair, where the paintings are being exhibited.
The five women – Bincy Lee Binu, Sony Libin, Usha Satheesan, Mita Poddar, and Mahija Suresh – from various regions in India had moved to Oman with their husbands more than a decade ago. It all started when they went to Kalamandalam, an art institute in the city, to admit their children to art classes. “As we spend time there watching our wards learn painting, we also tried our hands at it,” they say. It began slowly; but it was gripping. “We all met at the institute, became friends and we discussed, learned, and helped each others to form this group.”
Now the group members share their knowledge, techniques, and thoughts and learn from each other. “We often go to famous artists who visit Muscat to learn a lesson or two from them. After chasing my passion in art, life has changed me in so many ways. I have changed from a normal day-to-day working lady to an art professional,” says Bincy.
Motherhood is a full-time job itself, but these women find time to be with the paint and brush, almost every day. For that, they say, ‘‘the support and inspiration we got from our family was enormous.’’
For Usha Satheesan, painting is a childhood dream and a passion. “I started with pencil during my free time and it gave me the confidence to play on canvas with colours. Definitely, encouragement from family and friends played a vital role. Whenever I saw beautiful pictures or sceneries, I tried to copy it. I love painting and enjoy using my free time with paint and brush.”
The group has not yet decided to go commercial with their art and tried to sell their art works. This is for the first time that they’ve attached price tags to their works, which have been displayed in an exhibition at City Seasons Hotel.
“We have poured much emotion into our works and still feel that we don’t want to sell our paintings. But our lives have taken a turn after such exhibitions as it helped build confidence in us. We feel from within that we have graduated to professionals from amateur painters”, they assert in one voice.
For Mahija Suresh, painting was just a hobby that grew and became a part of her life. “It brings a feeling similar to what a kid feels when it looks to the stars in the night sky. That feeling keeps me going,” she said.
“It is like a new beginning,” they say, “a kind of feeling that we have revived our school days after a hiatus.” All of them had begun painting since their early years in India.
“As a child, I found immense pleasure in painting and drawing. This recreational activity soon blossomed into a passionate hobby, as my interest in artistic interpretations and depictions grew,” says Mita Poddar.
“Being an admirer of God’s creations and a nature lover myself, I’d been searching for ways to spend the time of life the way I wanted it to be. Brushes and colours got into my world as the pursuit of happiness,” says Sony Libin.
“We draw our inspiration from the wonderful landscapes of the Sultanate. Initially we started imitating great masters’ works after getting some basic training at the institute. Later on we have started watching YouTube videos to learn certain painting techniques. On weekends and holidays we used to go out for family picnics and we as a group observed how the sunlight falls on mountains, trees, rocks, and wadis and tried to put that effect into our works. Sometimes we had to revisit those places to get the perfect angle and colour shades,” they said.
The works on display at the City Seasons Hotel are of realistic paintings in acrylic, oil, clay, jute, nib art, pencil, and some of them are in mixed medium. The exhibition is on till the end of this month. —[email protected]