Gateway (Theme 79)

 

This is one of the photos I took on my trip to Delhi..Used Photoshop filters and some arabic calligraphy

The beauty of Arabic Calligraphy

Among all the languages in the world, none celebrate the form of the written alphabet like the arabic language. In this language, alphabets are like dancers, dancing to the tune of the calligraphers pen.

Traditional arabic calligraphy can be flowing like the deewani font, or be stiff and straight like the kufi font, or it can take the contemporary avatar from the brush of the artist. There are innumerable fonts in arabic, each a visual treat if you are into typography.

Sharjah Calligraphy Institute hosts the 'Calligraphy Biennial' where calligraphy artists from all over the world display their work. This unique event has influenced us to try some typography in our work.

Here are a few of our paintings celebrating the beauty of arabic calligraphy.





The orange colored flowing style is called the Deewani Jalil while the golden font - sharp and straight is called the Kufi style of calligraphy.






Our experiments in the contemporary styles:

Photoshop once again...

I think I am bitten by the photoshop bug.. I found a few sites on the net with grunge brushes and vectors. I made a wallpaper with these which I edited on photoshop and got these pics..

Working on Adobe Photoshop

It has been a very long time since this blog has been updated.. I hope to be more regular from now onwards.

Currently I am learning and experimenting on Adobe Photoshop. Our teacher Mr.Noori introduced us to this magical software. Before this, I was under the impression that photoshop was a software for photographers. Mr. Noori was raving about the use of photoshop in art which piqued our interest. I googled for 'art using photoshop' and came across an artist called Malik Anas on Deviant art. His compositions were so beautiful that it that I wanted to use photoshop in my art. Malik Anas's works can be viewed on this link:

http://malikanas.deviantart.com/gallery/

Inspired with such lovely calligraphy, I am trying to learn photoshop with the help of the various tutorials available on the net along with my own experiments with a lot of trial and error attempts.

I am posting a couple of compositions I did using photoshop...

This picture is an abstract composition of arabic calligraphy. The next contains the word Shanthi written in Hindi..

Some Painting

July and August are months where Sharjah experiences summer and the temperature soars up to 50 degrees...Vacations are planned just around summer to escape this unbearable heat. We were on our annual vacation to India the last two months and as a result there was a total lull in all art activities and hence the delay in the posts...


Now it is back to work after a refreshing vacation ...Ceramic work will begin in a couple of weeks after we have decided on the colors...We are working together on a huge calligraphy piece for the november exhibition..The piece measures 1.2mX1.2m and is done with airbrush and arabic calligraphy...Here are a few pictures of the work in progress...

Calligraphy

Calligraphy as an art started centuries ago when mankind invented communication through the written word. The Arabs, Chinese and Japenese have inculcated this art form into their culture.

In the Arabic art world, calligraphy has grown from the traditional styles to include contemporary abstracts also. The Sharjah Calligraphy Binniale is an event which proves the importance of calligraphy in the Arab world.

We began our journey into the world of arabic calligraphy with the traditional styles of rokah, deevane and deevane jalil scripts. The tradition calligraphy and ornamantation is a laborious task with very minute drawings. Very soon we branched out into the abstract representation of calligrapy.

Dubai hosts many exhibitions in contemporary calligraphy and we have had a chance to see the best of the calligraphers exhibit their art here. Our penchant for calligraphy grows with visits to these exhibitions and we hope to integrate calligraphy into our paintings.