My very first oil painting!

I’m kicking off my summer blog series about “Creativity” with my very first oil painting. I was just nine when I finished my masterpiece in July 1986. I remember the creative weeks before like it was just yesterday. My teacher was an older man in his sixties or maybe even seventies. He had turned his huge living room in his home into an art gallery and was offering private lessons to young and ambitious art students. I was the youngest one. All the others were much older and more experienced than I was.

This oil painting's main lesson that you see above was lighting and shadows. In several spots in the gallery, there were different items decorated with different sizes of canvas to choose from. Several canvas holders and chairs were welcoming the students to dive into another world, into another exciting scenery. That was wonderful.

I remember that the students were all so concentrated that no one said anything. Everyone was focused on her/his own artwork and in her/his own creative world in a lovely atmosphere with lots of lighting in the room. Our teacher played classical music in the background and his entire house was filled with his own masterpieces. We saw colorful landscapes, different flowers in vases, and fruit plates that made one really hungry, especially during the hot summer in Teheran.

The only time when we students talked and commented on each other’s artwork was during the breaks. The teacher’s wife spoiled us with Persian tea or ice-cold and fresh fruity drinks with homemade cookies and sweets usually made with pistachios and saffron.

The day when my mum picked me from art class and saw my work for the very first time was absolutely amazing. When I brought the big canvas (bigger than myself!) to the room, where she was waiting for me, she thought I’m helping another student and caring her work. Imagine her surprise when she realized that this was my very first oil painting. That was a lovely moment and I was proud of the masterpiece that I had worked on for weeks.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to continue my art classes for long, because just a few months later we left my country and came to Europe. As much as I loved to continue my art journey, we sadly couldn’t afford professional art classes in Switzerland. They cost a fortune. Nevertheless, I always stayed creative and did a lot of drawings and paintings at home in self-education. It became my way of self-therapy to this date. 

Who would have thought that one day my very first oil painting along with two other artworks of mine from decades ago, would help raise money for the refugees. Visit www.artforefugees.com and help this wonderful art shop raise money for two established charities in the United Kingdom. Thank you.