The Sultanate has always embraced multi-talented people and their beautiful and diverse arts and skills; from musicians who play the strings of musical instruments, to painters who play with colors, to the composer, sculptor, director, author, poet, and other artists in various fields of art.

Today, we shine light to a young artist who loved drawing in all its forms, and found herself in realistic drawing of faces, wildlife and Omani nature in particular. The young woman, Bayan bint Hamad Al Mahdhouri, whose paintings speak of her and presents a visual aura of great creativity, craftsmanship and beauty.

Bayan studies at the University of Technology and Applied Sciences, specializing in digital design, thus turning her artistic skills and beautiful talent into a part of her life that she polishes with study, science and knowledge. Bayan started her first drawing career when she was in high school, where the school held an art exhibition for students’ artwork under the sponsorships of the artist Alia Al-Farsi, which was the beginning of her appearance on social media. May situations have contributed to refining her talent and reaching to where she is now, including her participation in many art workshops.

Bayan was our guest today and here is what she has to say about her talent:

• You focus on Portraiture style in most of your drawings. Why is that?
• True, others may notice this clearly. I found myself keen to draw portraits of faces, and the faces I draw are not realistic. I find it quicker to finish the artwork that way.

• To you, which art of drawing is more flexible? Portraiture, Pop Art, or Graphics?
• “Pop Art” is the fastest and easiest type of art for me, but during this time I left “Pop Art” and moved to learn other skills and techniques.
• What are these other techniques?
• The other techniques that I started to learn are many, they include: realistic drawing, knife drawing, as well as water coloring.

• Can artists who learn the art of drawing reach the level of natural artists who acquire the talent through instinct?
• For me, that cannot happen. Artists who were born with the talent learn faster, and their level develops more, unlike the ones who acquires it without talent, skill or love. And like Jamal Ali Hussain said: “The ordinary artist draws a branch, and a talented artist draws the breath of wind that passes through the branch.”

• In your opinion, what’s the best way to learn how to draw?
• There are many ways and techniques to learn how to draw, I recommend anyone who wants to learn drawing to first learn through visual inspiration, and learn the basics of drawing either through YouTube or entering art workshops that teach drawing.

• What was the first painting you drew?
• My first painting was in the style of “pop art”, for the popular musician “Justin Bieber”.

• As creatives and talented artists, do you need an exhibition to market your paintings?
• Art galleries help widen our circle of art, create an artistic visual memory and experience that helps us explore as well as meet other talents, artists, and different arts, as well as promote our artwork.

• Do you have any participations? And what about competitions?
• Yes, but there are very few participations. I have shared some artworks in Muscat University of Technology and Applied Sciences, and participated in a competition affiliated with the university.

• How would you describe how you feel while drawing? What are the times when you prefer to draw?
• I feel satisfied and happy; as drawing moves the painter from reality to fantasy and isolates him/her from reality. In terms of time; there is no specific time, as soon as the mood and the inspiration for drawing hits, I get up and paint right away.

• Landscapes drawings are missing from your paintings. Why?
• Because I used to go for one style, which is “pop art”, and drawing faces, but now I started drawing nature, especially that in my art major, some projects require me to draw nature.

• What is your advice to someone who loves to draw?
• My advice is to improve their creativity and practice drawing more, participate in training workshops whenever possible to develop his talent, and learn new techniques and methods, along with looking at the artworks of great artists to broaden their view of art. Most important of all, artists should not compare their drawing with the drawing of other artists, but rather they should compare their new drawing with their precious work in order to know the extent of their level of development. I would like to say to the people who have the talent for drawing, you are really lucky people, because you are the creators of beauty and wonder.