Pastel

Painting Exhibition

By Samila Amirebrahimi

13th. – 27th November 2015

Statement

What is the city but people? (Shakespeare)

This is a retrospective exhibition of my soft pastel paintings. The main theme of it is the urban space in my hometown Tehran. Thirty years ago I had a more or less impressionistic style of dealing with city scenery. I used to choose old buildings and neighborhoods as models and work directly on locations. Some years later, I focused on plants and flowers at my studio with an expressionistic approach.

My recent pastel paintings follow my oil painting’s night scenes. They reflect here and now of Tehran: Cityscapes with polluted sky, highways, bridges, public parks, shrines and mosques, endless construction works, etc.

The transformation of Tehran is so harsh and unbelievable that now my old pastel paintings seem to belong to a totally different place and time. Along with changes of Tehran during the last three decades, you will see changes in my thoughts and feelings and eventually in my painting style, viewpoint and color palette.