Today we’d like to introduce you to Ishra Mohaymen.
Hi Ishra, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I have always found my most authentic self in the form of drawing and painting ever since I was a child, Absentminded and often in a distant world, I used to find joy drawing cartoon characters, imagining events and scenarios with them as if a colorful Disney film was being created before my eyes.
Over the years, I took a detour from these fantasies in pursuit of the more serious things in life, but only to get back to Art at full force after college. Over time, my cartoon drawings matured into hyper-realistic portrait drawings. My preferred medium were graphite and charcoal. I used to strive to achieve photorealistic attributes in my sketches with just a hint of looseness where one can tell the photo and the drawing apart. Eventually, I started getting commissioned work through recommendations from family and friends. Then social media became my channel of showcasing my portfolio to a more wider and global audience. After continuing this practice of working mainly on commissioned portrait drawings, a yearning for more lucidness and movement grew within me. Inspired by the work of the impressionist grandmasters, I stepped out of my comfort zone and took a plunge with oils and acrylics. I had an A-Ha moment ever since.
My love for oil painting grew exponentially as I started to discover my own unique style with this medium. Laying thick paint with palette knives or leaving intentional brushstrokes, the possibilities were infinite. No longer do I strive for perfection by trying to attain hyper-realism. My paintings now are quite loose yet maintains representation. That is my signature. Currently, I enjoy oil painting because of its textural qualities and the freedom that it allows me to manipulate its consistency via mediums.
Exaggerating subdued colors into vivid hues, I take an abstract and eclectic approach with figurative subjects. With landscapes, I express the spirit of that environment through heavy texture to emphasize the structure and disposition, whether it is a small town or a busy street scene in a big city. Translating these extraordinary episodes onto my canvas presents me with immense gratification.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Art is a journey, just like life. It is not a race. It can be at times an extremely slow and arduous process where you don’t get rewarded or compensated for your work immediately. Sometimes it takes a long long time. The challenge is getting your work to be seen and appreciated by the right audience. Social media was great in the beginning, but it is not enough anymore for advertising your work. Our attention span is less than ever before, and when everyone is competing for views and likes, Art gets drowned by all that noise. That is where galleries come in. I am lucky to be represented by Oasis Accents, an art gallery right here in Frisco, Texas as well as Amparo Art, an Artsy partner gallery based out of Philadelphia. They have been a great help so far!
Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
My work is almost like a dance between abstraction and fine art. There are instances where I stay very true to representation, and there are instances where it is very abstract, yet the representational elements are present. This varies from subject to subject. With figurative subjects, I take on an abstract approach, whereas with cityscapes, I paint in representational style whilst staying consistent with my technique. I love to paint in impasto which is laying very thick paint which gives a lot of body and texture. From there, I push and pull paint with my palette knife leaving obvious marks which builds character.
I have lived in the suburbs all my life, yet I always found myself drawn in the downtown part of the city. There is a lot of history in the making of these big cities such as Dallas, Toronto, New York City, Chicago, etc., where the old meets the new. It is not uncommon to find modern structures with glass facades right next to an 19th-century ornate building. I just find this aspect fascinating! This observation reflects in my cityscape paintings where I emphasize a sense of motion or movement. Like as if you took a moment in time, put in a bottle, and time stood still. Like as if you pressed paused in a moving video. The scenes in a big city is the epitome human civilization. It is a celebration of life. Be it passing cars, pedestrians crossing the road, the ever-changing flashing lights of advertisements from billboards, basically everyday city scenes which one would otherwise not notice.
My cityscapes are mostly rainy-day scenes where I like to emphasize the wet reflections of the streets made by traffic signs and other lights. Continuous or sudden motion captured in the form of a painting making that simple moment in time immortal.
What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
I love the Art Community! I love attending art exhibitions and art fairs as well as connecting with fellow artists and art lovers. Since every artist is in other words an entrepreneur by his/her own right, competition is intense as I mentioned before, for your work to be seen by the right audience. For this reason, most remains tight-lipped regarding resources. As an artist who was new to the Dallas art scene a few years ago, I found it quite an isolating experience. However, over time, as I got to know people and the community better, I found my own resources and am making my way.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.ishramohaymen.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ishy_kreates
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ishy.kreates
