Samar — Abstract Painter

Artist Statement

1989—

I paint faces because faces hold everything.

I'm Samar — born in 1989 in Dammam and raised in Hofuf, Saudi Arabia. Hofuf sits at the heart of Al-Ahsa, the largest oasis in the world. I grew up surrounded by a particular quality of light and stillness that I think lives in the work whether I intend it to or not.

I work in acrylic on large-scale canvas, building portraits and figures through abstract gesture, bold colour fields, and expressive mark-making. My practice is rooted in the belief that a face is the most complex, honest surface in the world. I'm not interested in likeness. I'm interested in what lives underneath it.

I came to painting twice. The first time I was twelve, with a set my grandmother gave me. The second time was in Dublin, where I moved for work in tech. The distance from home — the grey sky, the slowness, the long evenings — paint came back as a kind of necessity. I have worked at it every day since.

Hofuf · 2001 · Age 12

The Beginning

A paint set from my grandmother.

The first painting was made when I was twelve. A set given by my grandmother. A blank sheet of A4 paper. The original no longer exists — only this photograph remains.

Looking at it now, I can see that nothing fundamental has changed. The same restless need to find something in a face. The same refusal to leave it alone until it tells the truth.