Homeland/War series 2013

This set of 21 paintings are based on my memories of my home, Kuwait, and the lands I lived in during my time in exile as a war refugee- Iraq and Jordan. This was back in 1991, during the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and later, Desert Storm. The works are a look back at an idyllic life at a time when I was child. Here they are:

                                                           Wavebreakers at Messilah
                                                          Acrylic on canvas paper
                                                                 24"X20" USD $ 750
                                                                       Available

                                                           Wavebreakers II
                                                        Acrylic on canvas panel
                                                                 20"X16"
                                                                    Sold ( USD $350)

I read somewhere that if you think really hard, far back into your childhood, you will be able to find that one memory that astonishes you in its clarity...

I decided to round off my 21 part series on home, Iraq and Jordan, with that one perfect memory from my childhood...So this must be back in '85. I am about 7 and my brother, he is just about starting to walk.We are at our usual haunt, the beach. 

Was there a sailboat there that day, on the horizon? No. But then, this series started off with the white dhows on the Euphrates in war time Iraq. And I will end it with one far out at sea. Symbolically, the sailboat is me and this has been one marathon journey, a mind's eye view across many lands in a distant past filled with bitter sweet memories...

                                                                    The Return to Innocence
                                                                     Acrylic on canvas paper
                                                                       20"X24"  USD $ 600
                                                                               Available

                                                 Exodux III, Amman Beneath the Full Moon
                                                              Acrylic on canvas paper
                                                                 20"X24"USD 600
                                                                        Available

                                                 Purple Haze and Cumulonimbus
                                                       Acrylic on canvas paper
                                                               20"X24"   USD $ 500
                                                                    Available

I had decided early on that this series would not include any of the horrific memories of '91. As a friend rightly said, " Paint all your memories with love". But I just had to paint the oil fires. In a poetic sense, everything rose from the ashes again after that..

                                                            Lake of Fire
                                                          Acrylic on canvas paper
                                                                 20"X24"
                                                                  Sold ( USD $500)

                                                                   Inferno
                                                         Acrylic on canvas paper
                                                              20"X24"
                                                                Sold ( USD $500)

Spring in the desert gives the entire land a facelift. Yellow and white blankets of tiny flowers carpet either sides of highways...Here is a memory of spring back home...

                                                 I Dream of Gardens in the Desert Sand
                                                               Acrylic on canvas paper
                                                                    20"X24"
                                                                     Sold ( USD $400)




 Symbolizing majesty, strength and grace, the great white egret dotted the beaches back home. They were one species among the many animal and bird victims of the oil spill. Here is a recollection of egrets hiding in the rushes of the brooks at Jahra farms...

                                                           Through the Brooking Grass
                                                              Acrylic on mounted canvas
                                                                   24"X24"  USD$ 400
                                                                            Available

Home stretch is Jordan...Jordan is mainly rolling desert. Parts of it have unbelievably beautiful sand and stone formations... 

Anyone in their right mind can tell you that the experience of a refugee camp in the desert is not exactly that of a suite at the Four Seasons...The final point in the exodus, was Jordan. It must have been November '90. Many of us spent an indefinite amount of time in the camps. Food packets came thanks to the Red Cross. In the searing heat of the morning, the atmosphere was oppressive.. Then come nightfall, it was the chilling cold that took over. The desert was at once malicious and magnificent...

Then came the moment of reckoning. Many were shifted to Amman airport in batches, where we stayed, awaiting deportation...

                                                          Exodus I, Jordan
                                                      Acrylic on canvas paper
                                                           20"X24"
                                                            Sold ( USD $500)

I know how men in exile feed on dreams of hope- Aeschylus

                                            Exodus II, Twilight Beneath the Stars, Jordan
                                                           Acrylic on canvas paper
                                                             20"X24"   USD $500
                                                              Available

                                               Remembrance of Things Past
                                                    Acrylic on canvas paper
                                                         20"X24"
                                                          Sold ( USD $400)
                         

 

                                                                 Dhows on the Euphrates
                                                               Acrylic on mounted canvas
                                                                   24"X30"  USD $ 800
                                                                      Available

Back in my teaching days, I was guiding a student on a paper on the the symbolism in Somerset Maugham's famous short story, Appointment in Samarra. 

Samarra, a sacred pilgrimage center for Shia muslims, situated on the Tigris, means " a Joy unto all who behold". Tragically, in the civil war, some of its famous shrines have been reduced to rubble.

Many years ago, a colleague sent me links the towater colour/ink art made of the city, by the Scottish painter John Daniel Revel- pristine depictions of a city before strife hit it.

2006. In was in my car, 8 months pregnant. My husband and I, we still hadn't decided on a name for our baby. It was a stalemate in Bangalore traffic and there was plenty of time to sit back and tell stories  I told Vivek the story of Appointment in Samarra. There was something very moving in the tale.That's it he said. If we have a girl, that's her name!

Our daughter was born two weeks later. We named her Samarra.

 

 
                                                               The Tigris at Samarra
                                                               Acrylic on mounted canvas
                                                                    24"X20"  USD 600
                                                                        Available
                                                     

The Skyline that a whole lot of my friends and I grew up with  Designed by Danish architect Malene Bjorn in '77 , the towers were severely damaged during the invasion of Kuwait. They have since been restored to their former state...

The towers stand for the ideals of humanity and technological advancement..

 
                                                             Home on a Mid-Summer Night
                                                                  Acrylic on canvas paper
                                                                     20"X 24"   USD $ 400
                                                                           Available
             

                                                             Dhow at Sea, Shuwaikh Port
                                                                   Acrylic on paper
                                                                      24"X20"
                                                                      Sold ( USD $400)

 
                                                      Dhows leaving shore, Kuwait City
                                                              Acrylic on canvas paper
                                                                      20"X24"
                                                                       Sold ( USD $500)                                    
                                                       

Dhows on Pearly waves, Arabian Gulf

Acrylic on canvas paper

20"X24"  USD $ 800

Available

Basrah was the home of Sinbad the Sailor, the seat of the Sumerian civilization and the proposed location of the Garden of Eden. In modern times it was hailed as the Venice of the Middle East. I happened to pass through the Shatt Al -Arab waterway. It was a riot of dense greenery and palm forests. Here is a memory...

                                                                   
                                                                 Sailboat at Basrah
                                                                  Acrylic on canvas paper
                                                                       20"X24"
                                                                     Available

Failaka island used to be open to visitors till the Iraqi invasion. Apart from being a popular weekend getaway, it was a place of historical importance to Kuwait, for its relics. Large flocks of cormorants inhabited the island. Hundreds of these birds died miserable deaths in the oil spill that followed the war.

The waters out there were crystal blue and some parts of the beach had rocky boulders. I first went to Failaka when I was ten years old, with a whole army of cousins and family. I vividly remember that afternoon at the beach. It was low tide and the sea had receded almost a kilometer from the shore. By evening, it was thundering waves on the rocks...

                                                           Cormorants, Boulders and Seaspray, Failaka
                                                                 Acrylic on mounted canvas
                                                                        18"X 24"  USD  $ 600
                                                                           Available
               

Flamingos make a stop over in Kuwait during their migration in April and then in November. Hundreds of them can be seen at Shuwaikh beach and Sulaibikhat Bay. At low tide, they linger among the sea weed, taking off in majestic flight once the tide comes in.

These wonderful birds were a casualty of the war... But in recent years, they have been coming home to the marshes again...

                                                               
                                                      Flamingos and Seaweed, Sulaibikhat Bay
                                                              Acrylic on mounted canvas
                                                                    24"X30"  USD $ 800
                                                                         Available