Painter Hamawi Exhibits

MPHO MOKWAPE
Correspondent | Monday May 20, 2013 00:00

 

Hamawi, who has been in Botswana for the past five years, says growing up in Africa surrounded by the splendours of nature and its diverse flora and fauna has been instrumental in providing him with exotic compositions of colour and form.

Showtime spoke with Hamawi at Thapong Visual Arts Centre on Friday where he is exhibiting for the first time. At the exhibition, he gave some insight into the creative thinking process he goes through before he paints. 'My art is not just an expression of my feelings and thoughts, but also desire to improve with every painting which is the beauty of art as one can never stop learning,' emphasised Hamawi.Hamawi says his living experience in London forced him to adapt his painting to the environment that is so different from Africa. He further explained that he began to see London as a concrete jungle and started a series of paintings of buildings. He was forced to search for aesthetic qualities of buildings and houses by reconstructing, simplifying and cleaning them up and giving them another worldly feel.

In his constant search for beauty, Hamawi said he exaggerated colours and simplified the surfaces, windows and roofs of the buildings in his paintings.

'I transformed the dirty smog covered buildings into smooth and glossy surfaces twisting reality into the way I saw it or more specifically the way I wanted to see it,' lamented Hamawi.

Hamawi, who has won may awards including the 2001 Landscape Painting Award and The Royal Academy of Arts, says talking and exchanging ideas with local artists has also inspired his work. He also said he will exhibit in Botswana in the future. Other countries where he has exhibited are; Greece, China and United Kingdom. Even though he has lived in Botswana for a while, Hamawi says he still feels new to Botswana. He says he still admires the country's abundance of nature, its glorious skies, majestic sunsets and its vast array of colours that constantly shift and change during the seasons. The Okavango is one of his favourite subjects for his work - including the water lilies, reeds and doum palms.

He emphasised that viewpoints and perspectives are key elements in the paintings.'Photographic elements have also been introduced such as focal points, blurred areas slowly merging into fine detail.

Compositions are created from various sources such as memory, imagination and also photography. The paintings on display try to capture specific emotions whether it is loneliness, joy, anxiety, calm and others.  They capture a particular moment in time where light, colour, and form play an important role,' pointed out Hamawi.