CAIRO - They meet every Friday at 8am for breakfast, which always consists of fuul and falafel, washed down with glasses of tea. They then pick up their tools and walk off through old districts of Cairo, looking for interesting scenes to inspire them. Old buildings, people's faces and the ageless Nile are all part of Egypt's magic, prompting these artists to do a ‘one-shot' painting of these scenes. "We each paint the same scene, according to our individual point of view. Every painting is a work of art with a new meaning," says Abdel-Aziz el-Guindy, a fine arts professor at Helwan University, south of Cairo and head of the ‘Gama'at el-Laqta el-Waheda (One-Shot Troupe), a group of artists, who have been painting Egypt's places and people for almost 20 years. They document the old streets of Cairo and also daily Egyptian life. "Every painting tells a story. When we paint a man sitting in his kiosk, he is not just a man but he is a life, a story on his own," el-Guindy told the Egyptian Mail. It's all started when 15 Egyptian artists decided to get up early one Friday to paint one of Cairo's streets. Little did they imagine how popular their initiative would become and how many other artists would join them. "The idea started when I was just a young new professor in 1991. I discovered that I really liked teaching art to students. I suggested that we meet every Friday to observe and sketch," he added. The group, which now has more than 60 members, has held exhibitions of its members' works, with subjects including fuul and batata (sweet potato) sellers and old tram stations. "One painting may take a month to finish, another only an hour. There is no specific time for finishing the paintings. Once they've been done, we vote on them and the winner's paintings usually get exhibited in one of Cairo's galleries," el-Guindy explained. This crowd of artists, armed with canvasses, brushes and colours, is quite conspicuous, but no-one ever bothers them. "Egyptian people are so warm and kind. When they see us in the street, the local residents sometimes even make us tea. They love it if we put them in our paintings," he added. The artists have taken a shot at districts like the Citadel, Al-Megharbilin, Al-Darb Al-Ahmar, Darb Al-Labbana, Dahab Island, Maadi, different theatres, the National Circus in el-Agouza, the Museum of Modern Art and many more. For them, it's not just about painting something pretty, but also creating a piece of work that is "a part of them mixed with some parts of Egypt".
