Artist’s paintings ‘reflect real life moments’

AMMAN — Music, painting and the human soul have found a place in the work of Jordanian artist Zaid Shawwa, now displayed under the title “Watar” at Wadi Finan Art Gallery. 

“My paintings reflect real moments in life through music, people’s bodies become instruments, and the strings represent their souls,” the artist told The Jordan Times, expressing that he pictures life “as a big musical piece”.

Acrylic and oil are the materials that Shawwa uses to project his vision of music on the canvas, treated with a warm underlayment and cooler colours on top in order to allow warmer shades to spell into the surface. 

“I also paint on wood because it provides you with a different texture, and I use mixed media in order to put things from the world on my paintings and connect them with the surroundings,” the artist said. 

Having studied in Italy, Oxford and New York, Shawwa started his career in art working on classic portraits and landscapes, mainly using charcoal or a bicolour palette. 

However, inspired by Picasso and Matisse, the artist walked away from the classic forms into more abstract figures, starting a stage of expressionism and spontaneity. 

“My style in this exhibition combines expressionism and cubism, looking for a minimalist expression of the figure and its interaction with the surroundings,” Shawwa said. 

“I shifted to a minimal approach of simplified figures, aiming to let people finish the picture themselves and complete its meaning rather than providing them with a closed reading,” continued the artist. 

“However, my next stage will be less focused on the inner self and more centred in connection with the world around us, the landscapes and the human relations,” concluded Shawwa.

The exhibition will run through December 12.