Artists, don't be afraid to show us your rough draft

All artists keep a sketchpad to illustrate ideas and to practice drawing. The "Sketchat" group art exhibition said it would give me a peek into this world.


I'd say this statement was a bit misleading. I thought that the participating artists would offer actual pieces of art from their sketchpads so that we could see unfinished works and ideas. One of my favourite paintings of all time is Picasso's Woman in Mantilla or La Salchichona, I have a poster of it hanging on my door. The painting is different from Picasso's works of art that we're familiar with. It was created in 1917 and doesn't fit into any of his defined periods. It's not cubist nor surreal, it's a portrait of a woman made from a style of pointillism using broader and more widely spaced strokes with the original outlines showing. I love that it gives viewers an insight into his creative process and I love that it's unfinished. It shows the human side of the artist and it brings up a lot of questions too. Why didn't he finish the artwork? What did this woman mean to him? It's a compelling piece because we don't have such answers.

Now I wasn't expecting any of the artists at the exhibition to be Picassos, but I expected to see sketches that were exercises in certain ways of painting or drawing art, especially from contributor Noorah Kareem, who posts daily sketches on her Instagram account from her sketchpad. While I understood from contributor Ali Hussain's story that his pieces were sketches, the rest were full on finished works of art. And I will always love Hussain Ismail's artwork, but what do his first drafts look like? I don't know. Maybe the gallery should have just said the exhibition was made of artwork inspired by the artist's personal sketches.

Ahmed Anan

"Miniature 1"

"Wish"

Noorah Kareem

"Unpolished"

Tagreed Al Bagshi

Ali Hussain Mirza

He had all of his sketches attached with clothespins to a twine string suspended between pillars in the gallery. It was a really great way to showcase his work as you had to interact with the display to see all of his art.

Apparently when he was contacted for this show he was on the subway and he drew all of this submissions there!

The faces of these figures remind me of No-Face from Spirited Away and their hands of the monster from Babadook.

Mariam Bukhamsin

"Alive Love"

"Him 1." The fact that she was able to exhibit artwork depicting a woman's figure is amazing!

Hussain Ismail

The text reads, "Mom...! Are we Shi'a or Sunni?"

"Glance." Ismail says he was inspired by seeing a woman and a man glance at each other in the food court of a shopping mall. This is often the only interaction before marriage that unrelated men and women have here in this country. 

"Affection"

"Date." All of Ismail's pieces are priced at SR650-700, except for this one which is priced at SR1,500 because he doesn't want to sell it. It depicts his fiancee and him on a date!

"Mercury." This piece is based off of a 2009 rumour that Singer sewing machines in kingdom contained the powerful but nonexistent "red mercury" substance. People flocked to markets to sell their old machines for up to SR200,000.

"I love you bed"

"The Roundabout." This is based off of an event which occurred in the early morning of May 8. Residents of the town of Al Ahsa were surprised to find that the "12 Imams Roundabout"'s columns were being removed. They had unofficially been calling it that because the Shia, which a majority of the residents are, believe in 12 imams of the prophet's sons. The Saudi government has been suppressing protests by Shia adherents since the Arab Spring and before. 

The exhibition will close on May 24.