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Pablo Picasso, Piet Mondrian and Henri Matisse had a big influence on him. A young Omani is carving his path as an artist based on the works of great artistes.
He is Majid al Amri who describes his style as abstract as he tries to excel and make himself heard.
Fresh with new ideas, after he graduated with specialisation in art education from Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) in 2021, Majid now aims to become a distinguished artist.
Majid started his journey as an artist from a young age. His father, Juma al Amri, who works as an art teacher in Shinas, was his initial inspiration.
He studied art at the university for five years obtaining a Bachelor’s degree in art education.
“I practice real and abstract art. But I am more inclined to abstract and I strive to reach my own artistic style,” he says.
He now wants to impart his artistic experiences to others interested in art.
Majid mentions how his inspiration in artwork changes over a period varying from time to time. “But most of it is a special feeling about the things I see,” he adds.
Famous Finnish artist Matti Sirvio encouraged him and helped to exhibit his works at the Matti Sirvio Art Galleria.
Matti advised him to keep going even if he happens to cross paths with those frustrated people who dislike abstracts. Matti helped put up his first exhibition at his gallery in 2021.
Muscat-based artist and photographer Rachel Eapen finds Majid’s brush strokes and colours ‘playful, deeply personal and poetic.’
“I loved the way he plays with the colours, lines, shapes and creates images that I love to look at. The use of abstraction is his way to communicate emotions and ideas about life and nature,” she says.
About his choice for bold colours, Majid says the “colours depend on the theme of the painting, and the shapes and lines that I spread out in the painting.”
Off late, Majid has tried his hand at digital calligraphy and has worked on seven of them, mostly portraits. In these he has drawn the letters so beautifully and artistically combining them with colours and transparency.
One of his favourite abstract works has been titled ‘Motherland.’ The work expresses the homeland of the Arabs and how he looks at them. The circle expresses the thinking of the human being and what is going in his mind towards his homeland, and the lines and colours express memories and love. The Arabic letters represent the person as an Arab human being.
About what the future holds for him, Majid says, “I aspire to be an artist known to everyone and to teach people the art that I learned. I hope that my art reaches everyone, and I participate in well-known international exhibitions, and reach the farthest point of art,” he adds.
Majid has a keen admiration for simple and different things and likes to draw on topics that he sees but draw them differently from reality.
“I care more about the idea than delivering the form to realism. My advice is to continue making paintings about our own styles,” he says.
Majid has so far participated in many local and international art exhibitions. He feels he is still yet to do a solo but has plans in the future on setting up his own art gallery.
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