60 watercolor paintings showcased in “Souria ya Habibati” exhibition

Damascus, SANA – Syrian Plastic Artists Union organized an exhibition at al-Shaab Art Gallery in Damascus showcasing 60 paintings by artist Fouad Abu Turabeh who used different watercolor techniques.

Abu Turabeh, who selected the phrase “Souria Ya Habibati” (Syria My Love) to be the title of his exhibition, mainly depended on the engraving technique and used grey, white and black colors as background for his paintings.

In a statement to SANA Cultural Bulletin, Abu Turabeh said that the Syrian crisis has affected all aspects of Syrian life, including arts, and as an artist I attempted to depict the repercussions of the unjust war waged on my country from my own perspective.

He said that the spread of visual culture nowadays has contributed to the growing interest in color as the main element to express the artist’s feelings and ideas, adding that his paintings are a combination of color drawing and engraving techniques.

For his part, Head of the Syrian Plastic Artists Union, Ehssan al-A’r, underlined Abu Turabeh’s success in utilizing colors to document the current crisis and its repercussions on all levels, indicating to the diversity of painting techniques such acrylics, pastels and oil paints which Abu Turabeh used in his artworks.

Artist Fouad Abu Turabeh was born in Salkhad in Sweida province 1954 and graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts in Damascus in 1980. He is member of the Syrian Plastic Artists Union and works as a lecturer in the second faculty of Fine Arts in Sweida. He participated in several solo and group art exhibitions inside Syria and abroad. His artworks are owned as private collections in Syria, Netherland, Fenland and Germany.

R.Raslan / Ghossoun