ON the white paper, his colours move freely, creating a new world, which looks like the real world but with an artistic spirit. Mohamed el-Tarawi's works, being exhibited at the Picasso Art Gallery, are abstract but also very familiar. "I paint with watercolours. I use a lot of white paint, which is rarely used, and I've called my exhibition ‘Wading into Whiteness'. "The white area in my paintings is like light, gathering all my other elements," says Mohamed el-Tarawi, born in 1956. In his exhibition, he focuses on the Bedouin and their landscapes in a new way. "I transform the place I choose into a new artistic scene, similar to the reality," adds el-Tarawi, who graduated in 1980 from the Faculty of Fine Arts. His paintings are full of women in Bedouin dress and their husbands at work. But the features of his characters have been erased. "My paintings are indirect. They are very abstract. The faces of the women in my paintings are ambiguous, giving unclear meanings," the artist told The Egyptian Gazette in an interview. "For me, it's easy to see the faces of people but hard to know what they're saying. Faces may reflect many feelings and emotions," he explained. "I'm also very fond of the sea. It's like a huge stone on which all the problems of the city get smashed. It is something very volatile, a rich source of ideas," added el-Tarawi, who has participated in many national and international exhibitions and won many prizes. The exhibition ‘Wading into Whiteness' is being held at the Picasso Art Gallery, 30 Hassan Assem St., off Brazil St., Zamalek (02/2736-7544). It's open daily until January 20.
