This week, on June 20 to be specific, the world celebrated Father’s Day — a time dedicated to honouring fathers for all the sacrifices they made for their families.
Multi-skilled artist Intisar al Ghanbousi has perfectly captured the bond between a child and her father through her artwork she called ‘Don’t Let Go of My Hand’, which she proudly dedicated to her father.
“The relationship between daughters and their fathers is one of the most heartwarming and strong bonds there is especially when a father is fully involved in her daughter’s life and dedicated his time and actually treat her like a princess showered with love’’, she said.
Intisar’s father is an inspiration among fathers having supported her in many of her dreams and helping her to achieve what she dreamt of. As a way of honouring this special bond, she was pushed by a powerful drive to finish the said piece.
“My father was among the many powerful reasons that pushed me to come up with some of my most inspired works", she said.
“Made from clay and sculpted with my father in mind, this is a message of thanks to all fathers in the world for the way they
care for their daughters’’, she said.
As a young Omani artist, Intisar’s attention couldn’t be centred into one type of art. Other than sculpture, she is also a gifted painter and also dabbles in photography. Her subjects also differ finding inspiration from everything she sees around her. One of the areas of focus she has is nature.
“People who want a closer relationship with the natural world should be looking for ways to engage their emotions. Often, people associate nature with the countryside.
While this is great, it is not always easily accessible for everybody’’, Intisar said.
“I am lucky to have this access and thus, focus on the heritage side of Oman believing that the past is the main component of the present development’’, she added.
“This access to heritage sites influences the emotions of the artist, forcing him or her to unwittingly create marvellous pictures of each scene”, she said.
Al Ghanbousi focuses also on recycling materials to use in her art.
“Glass bottles, plastic bags and other waste that would end up filling landfills or floating in the sea, have in the hands of some artists, become a form of sustainable art that highlights the degradation of the planet and surprises with its originality. For me, I use only wood and turtle shells", she said.
“Today’s society generates an enormous amount of waste. As a result, recycling has become an essential action to protect the environment. She adds, saying that each individual can play a role to prevent this pollution, and to artists, this waste is a material that
they collect from nature and reproduced into a beautiful art”.
“Just like us, our waste also deserves a second chance and recycling has led to the emergence of an artistic movement known as recycled art, that is currently inspiring many artists around the world with its critical message regarding excessive consumption and environmental pollution”, she said.
Intisar explains that it takes her days or months to finish one work, depending on the style, the form of art, the surrounding
factors around her.
“In architectural photography, as I am very interested in this field, it takes time to study a building’s form and then experiment with various angles, settings, timing and effects to achieve unique and interesting shots. The most famous buildings and landscapes have been photographed thousands of times, so it’s key to find a new
approach to make your image stand out”.
Another side of creativity that Intisar practices are decorative art.
“It is one of the fine arts known since ancient times and is used as an aesthetic view. It is made up of dots, lines, geometric shapes and some repetitive botanical drawings that are intertwined and coordinated wonderfully. I am inspired by the decorations on doors, windows, ornaments and old local beliefs. I rely on two styles in one artwork and I use digital printing’’, she said.
“The gold colour always seems attractive to the eye, that is why I use it in most of my decorative artworks”.
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