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| Ali Ghapu and the Shah Mosque in Naghshe Jahan square |
My Upcoming Painting Show in Esfahan
It's a rather chilly October morning in Tehran, and I'm doing this post from my studio apartment where I created most of my recent still life paintings that are going to be on exhibit in my hometown Esfahan next week. I am so excited about showing my works in the city where I started learning art about 20 years ago. The show will,hopefully, give me an opportunity to meet some local artists in an old architecturally rich city where, even, the lay person is said to be appreciative of art. The city is known to have been an arts and crafts hub for hundreds of years. The building you see in the foreground is Ali Ghapu, a 400-year old royal mansion, overlooking the whole of the square underneath. The square itself used to be a polo ( chowgan ) playgroud, and the second floor of the building presumably provided the VIP seats for the shah and his royal family. The blue dome in the background belongs to Shah mosque, one of the two large mosques in the square. The other mosque, that is located right across from Ali Ghapu on the other side, lacks minarets and was mainly used by the harem residents.
Drama in Still Life
Below is a sample of the paintings on the show. My purpose was to create as much drama in a still life as possible, hence the dramatic lighting and the stark contrast of colors and values. I lined up a few apples against the wall and threw in a couple of tiny red roses to go with the band, the set-up was meant to look like a stage, and I did my best to give equally important roles to all the items. Yet the dappled apple with the hard edge along the right side seems to stick out as the leading actor and the red rose to the left of it as the supporting actress!
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| Dappled Apple ( oil on board ) |
