Zareen Khan is from Pakistan and grew up in Dubai. She is an interior designer and an entrepreneur. Marketa Halamek is a construction engineer from the Czech Republic. The two women are different in their artistic styles, the subjects they choose to paint and their approach to art. But they share a close bond, thanks to their love of art. A joint exhibition by the two Dubai-based artists, titled A Journey Through a Woman's Soul, celebrates their friendship and their individual journeys as women and artists.
"I love art because it has helped me find myself. It has made me aware of who I am and how I feel about the world. It is a tool I use to comment on what I feel strongly about and the things and people that matter to me. My friendship with Marketa began when I saw her paintings at an exhibition and loved them. Since then, we have both grown as artists and participated together in many group exhibitions. But this show is different. It is about us as women and how we feel about our lives and the world around us," Khan says.
Her paintings are usually based on what she writes in her diary. "I like to write down my thoughts and feelings about events and people. But sometimes words are not enough. Then the best way to capture your memories and emotions is in a painting. Because my paintings emerge from my writing, I have a clear idea of the composition and the colours I want to use before I begin," Khan says.
Her acrylic paints and watercolour on paper paintings cover a wide range of subjects. Mostly featuring women, they reflect her strong personality and represent the joys and stresses in the life of a busy career woman. Most women will identify with her painting titled All I Need is Sleep, which depicts a tired woman beside a long to-do list, a clock and a cup of coffee. They will understand the sentiment behind her painting of a woman holding back tears, titled Tough Girls Don't Cry.
Her positive attitude to life shines through in the paintings Optimistic Insomniac, The Window Named Hope and A Frame of Mind. Her happy memories of her student days in Missouri, the United States, are captured in a beautiful painting of the Mississippi River. Her feelings after the terrorist attacks in New York, where she used to work, are depicted in the piece Invisible Hug.
"The world changed after this terrible incident. People lost trust in one another and became judgmental and prejudiced. I felt the world needed a hug and painted this angel giving us all a hug," she says.
The artist expresses her strong views against discrimination of any kind through works such as I'll Find My Rainbow, which exhorts every person to find their strength and be themselves, and a self-portrait titled Different and Proud of It. She also pays tribute to a friend who has stood by her in difficult times with a beautiful monochrome portrait titled The Man Who Cannot Be Moved. Khan also reveals her spiritual side with a painting of a dancing dervish; and her love for music is expressed through several pieces such as Her Secret Garden. "This is based on a song by my favourite singer, Bruce Springsteen. It depicts the secret garden that exists in the mind of every woman, where only the few people she trusts are let in," she says.
Unlike Khan, who has been painting since childhood, Halamek started painting only after she moved to Dubai seven years ago. She uses oil paints, pastels and charcoal to create serene landscapes based on her memories of her country.
"Usually, I paint when I am feeling homesick and hence you see these scenes of forests in autumn and snow-covered fields that I miss a lot," she says. But her work also includes some beautiful pastel and charcoal paintings of the striking landscapes she remembers from trips to India and other places.
"When I begin a painting, I never have a plan or a sketch in mind. I just work spontaneously, allowing my mood and feelings to dictate the colours and lines. Hence every painting truly represents my mood and thoughts at the time. I usually finish a painting in a few hours but it takes me weeks to get into the right mood," Halamek says.
The shy, softspoken artist recently started experimenting with acrylics and figurative paintings and has added bright colours to her mellow palette of ochres and whites.
"My paintings do not tell stories, they just express my feelings and I have always relied on nature to express myself. But meeting Zareen and seeing her work has given me the courage to try something new.
"I am excited about a self-portrait I have made for this show and my latest surrealistic landscapes in vibrant colours. I have never painted flowers, but for this show, I have done a painting of bright, flower-like forms. These are my flowers and I call the painting A Piece of My Soul," she says. "My experience as an artist has been wonderful so far and the journey continues."
The show has been organised by Woman2Woman, a Dubai-based company that encourages entrepreneurship by providing women professionals and homemakers a platform to showcase their talent, network and promote their businesses.
Jyoti Kalsi is a UAE-based art enthusiast.
A Journey Through a Woman's Soul will run at The Orient Guest House in Bastakiya, Dubai, until December 20.
