A Feast of Colors
Amal Al Balooshi is a passionate Bahraini artist known for the colorful mural art she shares on her social media platforms. For Amal, art is more than just a hobby; it is part of her identity and a way to explore and express the unknown parts of herself.
The 28-year-old artist is considered one of the region's most unique emerging artists. And with her passion for art, design, and colors, she creates murals in public and private spaces, transforming white walls into spaces of creativity and beauty.
The artist Amal Al Balooshi, courtesy of the artist.
The multitalented artist has a unique adventurous spirit that doesn’t like to be limited, instead taking chances to create art that transports the viewer into a world of her imagination. Art has always been a passion for Amal. “It started as an escape for me and continued as the path I created and chose to take.” Talking about her early years she explains, “I didn’t grow up learning enough about art and artists, I was always in my bubble. However I loved to attend art events and explore more about the artists around me.”
When asked whether art inspires her spontaneity she answered, “It is the other way around. I have this thing that I always say: ‘In art I like to go outside the lines.’ I like to paint outside the lines, paint the unexpected. You can see things and people around you. I don't have to paint them the same way, I want to show you how I see them, and this is where you will see me in my art.” In her latest painting, titled “الوجبة” or “The Meal”, which is a part of a new collection she is working on, she depicts a family eating together at a table. She explains the collection as being about unfiltered feelings, people and situations in the culture. “I mostly write in Arabic about the painting after I finish it, try to understand where it came from and why I drew it.”
A portrait. Courtesy of the artist.
Portraiture is more than just drawing the likeness of the person. And for Amal, drawing people and faces is the way she can see a person for who they are. “I paint how it feels when I see them, how I see they feel, because everyone is more than what they look like.”
Naturally, the creative process for any painting can include a firm idea in the beginning, which then turns into several variations before the final version emerges. As for Amal, when she is working on a specific collection that has a subject, it takes her weeks to finish the painting. “I let my mind drive my brush through the idea, which makes the painting contain a lot of layers until it reaches the frame that makes sense to my eye.”
Amal believes that art has the capacity to tell our stories and translate our deep feelings with colors and paint. It also gives us the freedom that our minds need to dive through the imagination, “the type of freedom that is not possible sometimes in real life. And this is all you need to be you and tell your story in a very nice, deep way. Any type of art can give you that.”
When she was asked if she had visited a place that set her creativity ablaze, she said, “To me it is all about the people's presence and energy. Every time I visit a new place it will inspire my soul somehow. But in the end, my studio, loud music, and coffee is where I can let it all out.”
Besides art, Amal runs an interior design business called Almarsam. “It is where I aim to work on crazy and unique design projects and where I can use all the skills I have, but it must be for a creative field or meaningful purpose.”
To check out more of Amal's beautiful art, click here.
