My favorite painting

Before I forget let me give credit where credit is needed. The artist of this painting is Sahar Madadi, I am unsure of the title, though I know it is a painting of me, Misha Zahedi, the painting was created in 1999, and the type of paint is oil.

So here is some background on the art and artist. The artist of this painting is my cousin, whom has been interested in art ever since childhood. I remember I adored her as a child. She was born and raised for most of her life in my parents native country of Iran. I remember that every time I visited Iran I would love to go to my cousin Sahar’s room because she would paint on her wall, and have many of her artworks on her walls or floating about her room. She studied art in high school, in most countries you have a “major” in high school, and later when she moved to Belgium she pursued a degree in art.

Now why am I the figure in the painting, let me tell you? So when I visited my cousin, and my aunt in Belgium, my cousin one day told me she wants to borrow me and so she does this creative make up on me and takes pictures. I was her mini-model, I was eleven at the time. So then from these numerous pictures, she makes paintings, and this is one of the ones that she has painted from the picture as you can see. It is weird because she has actually sold some paintings of me, so I guess I could be hanging it people’s living rooms…strange. I have another one too, I think I will take a picture of it and share it as well…

The medium of this painting is oil. It is quite a messy process quite frankly because I have viewed my cousin using this medium before. The smell is very distinct, and as we read, toxic. As you can see from the painting there are a variety of techniques used from gradual blending, to distinct outlines of hands and writing in the background. Using oil painting allows for this variety of effects like subtle gradation and special effects. Looking at the painting I can see parts where my cousin utilized impasto as well, where the texture is rough and thick. As for the durability and permanence of oil painting I would agree, it gets on clothes it does not come off, and it is as beautiful as the day it was painted. It is no joke that is takes forever to dry, I remember sneaking into my cousin’s room and touching paintings that she had worked on, and I swear everyday I went the painting would still be wet! Another reason my cousin loves using oil painting is because of its forgiveness in making mistakes, and the fact that the color stays true during drying and overtime.

I was glad I could share something personal in this weeks blog! I hope you guys enjoyed it.