Noufal Pathari

Some people come to your life for a purpose.

Noufal was introduced to be by my good friend Thajuddin.
The Artistic Metal Panels Paintings at Westin Hotel & Spa Doha were already installed and I had to quickly organise a photo shoot. These paintings are in six different meeting rooms, and it would have been a daunting task to have all 6 rooms photographed in one go – without interruptions by visitors. The fasting month of Ramadan had just got over and visitors to the hotel was just beginning to get larger by the number. Very soon the hotel would get busy. The only day I had was the first Friday immediately after Ramadan.

When Noufal was introduced to me, the first thought that came to my mind was, ‘How am I going to get this man to get to work during his festive season?” I was mistaken. Noufal consented to come to the hotel for a Recce and spent a good 2 hours knowing his subject well. Agreed to come the following day for the shoot. This good hearted man set aside his family time during his religious holidays and took on a task with a sense of urgency. He even went to shop for a lighting system that was both portable and versatile.

Noufal was on time the next day.
It was indeed very tiring to work continuously. We had to move chairs and tables and rearrange so many setting. Then there was the props. Lighting was a challenge, but somehow Naufal managed. We rested only for about 10 minutes during toilet breaks.
4 hours and the shoot was completed.

It was a pleasure working with someone like Noufal. It is one thing to work with a good photographer. Yet another to get someone who is both an understanding person yet skilled at his game – and allows you to be part of the whole exercise.

 

Paper Dog aka Salsa

I may live in a digital world, but my love affair with paper has by no means diminished.
Many of us have some form of paper or another within hand’s reach most of the time, and yet we never think about the extraordinarily beautiful pieces of paper art that we could create with them if we ever took the time to try. The next time you’re about to throw out a grocery receipt or chewing gum wrapper, try to fold or cut it into something beautiful. Maybe you’ll get a flash of inspiration and create a work of art!

Here is a piece of work I created in November 2014. Paper Dog aka ‘Salsa’.
Created entirely out of used A4 paper.

Note:
I had a Shih Tzu dog called Salsa. Had to give her away as I moved countries. The look she gave me (as the new owner took her away from me) still lingers in my memory.

Patric Rozario
Doha
2 Dec 2014

Cookie Jar. Pebeo Moon and Prisme

The French art material maker Pebeo has come out with two amazing range of paints for fine artists and crafts people. Two ranges of opalescent, reactive paints that create an array of infinite effects, designs and textured appearances. Magnificent abstract effects are the result. Available in a variety of mixable, brilliant colors, including pearlescent and metallic shades; they can be used to create an opaque, marbled effect on almost any surface, including glass, wood, Plexiglas, canvas, ceramics, metal, and more.

Fantasy Prisme. Opalescent and daring, the colours reveal stunning honeycomb and textured effects when applied generously on horizontal surfaces.

Fantasy Moon. Pearly, opaque colours that immediately render a hammered or marbled effect when applied in thin or thick coats.

I was commissioned to work on three Porcelain Cookie Jars. I have never worked on irregular porcelain surface, and I knew for sure that acrylic won’t work. My art supplies store (Color Note, Doha) had introduced me to this new range of Pebeo product, which are solvent based. With boldness I embarked on painting with these Pebeo paints. Impressed with the effect. Cant wait to work with these solvent based paints on canvas.

 

Patric Rozario

Sept 2014

Pebeo Moon

Fantasy

Peboe Prisme

The final 3 wise old men. Fat and prosperous.

Back of the cookie jar provided me ample clean space for me to work on.

The cookie jar as it came to me. Virgin.

 

Roll-A-Coaster

As an artist, I have totally embraced re-used and re-cycled materials as medium for my art; and I am surging ahead.
I have been experimenting with a lot of such materials for my creations, and paper certainly is a favorite currently.

Roll-A-Coaster is one such creations and these craft product is now ready for marketing. Branding, packaging, online sales channel, and payment gateway are all ready now.
Each pack contains a set of 6 coasters. They have a water proof coating and should last as long as you keep loving them.

I have taken this one step further. I am utilizing low-income expatriates in the Middle East to produce these coasters for me. I have been tutoring a few of them for the past two months both to create these coasters and learn to be self-reliant. I pay them a nominal sum in advance to create these coasters. A second payment will be made after I make a sale. Certainly I am using the principle of Fair Trade.

Your support will make REAL difference in their lives.

One can buy these coasters from: https://www.etsy.com/shop/OwnARozario1

May the forest be with you.
Patric Rozario

 

 

Newspaper Repurposed

These pieces of art was created for a workshop for Qatar Green Building Council, in conjunction with ‘No Paper Day’. These eco-friendly creations made out of recycled newspaper and magazine can make quite stunning art. These pieces not only are conversation art pieces, but they are also functional pieces. Today’s newspaper are colourful and can add depth and dimension with their varied hues, but the monochromatic simplicity of newspaper makes for wonderful art works as well.
Patric Rozario

From Trash to Treasure

A flip-flop discarded in Thailand finds its way to Hawaii, a bottle cast off from a tsunami in Japan becomes Alaska’s beach litter, and a six-pack drink plastic is chocking a turtle in Qatar. In a culture dependent upon the modern convenience of plastic, throwaway products of consumption are affecting oceans and shrinking our world as we all become connected through our trash.

The proliferation of plastic products in the last 70 years or so has been extraordinary; quite simply we cannot now live without them. This epidemic of plastic has resulted in an increased introduction from around 50 million tonnes in 1950 to 245 million tonnes in 2008 (Plastics Europe). Plastic is cheap and incredibly versatile with properties that make it ideal for many applications.  However, these qualities have also resulted in it becoming an environmental issue.  We have developed a ‘disposable’ lifestyle and estimates are that around 50% of the plastic we use we use just once and throw it away. Plastic is a valuable resource and plastic pollution is an unnecessary and unsustainable waste of that resource.

I was contacted by the Environment Department of The Pearl-Qatar (UDC) to create an art installation using plastic bottles and bottle caps. I took on this project to create an Eco Pond made entirely out of domestic plastic waste. Working together with 3 other fellow artist, we worked over a month to prepare for this art installation – From Trash To Treasure. For 2 consecutive weekends, we involved the community of Doha (including residents of The Pearl-Qatar and some school children, to complete this pond. Qatar Green Building Council reached out to all schools in Qatar, and collected 60,000 plastic bottle caps. This Eco Pond was finally assembled at Porto Arabia and unveiled on Earth Hour – 29th March 2014.

The flamingo body cut out from cardboard. Sample given to carpenter to cut out on MDF board.

Plastic spoons when heated, will curl to resemble a petal.

Varnishing the MDF body of the flamingo to render it waterproof.

Smita Aloni created these water lilies from plastic milk cans.

The plastic spoons became the flowers.

Fishes created from plastic bottles.

When glued at the tail, the shape of the plastic bottle resembles the body of a fish. All I had to do was glue in the fins.

One Yoghurt bottle cut into two lengthwise is enough to create 2 Koi fishes. The bottom piece of the bottle was used as the tail.

Artist Dr. Sreekumar painting the flamingo body, which was constructed out of plastic shopping bags.

The final piece.

A lobster created from plastic yoghurt bottles.

Concept drawing for the Trash To Treasure pond.

Commencing to glue the pond base.

The artist. From left to right, Smita Aloni, Patric Rozario, Dr. Sreekumar and Mahesh.

Artist Smita Aloni demonstrating to participants – making flowers and butterflies from plastic bottles.

These cactus made from plastic fruit juice bottle caps.

Glueing the lobster to the pond base.

Varnishing the Flamingo base.

Artist Mahesh marking out the backdrop piece.

When glued on the pond, these plastic koi fishes looked so very real.

Plastic milk can became the flower pots.

These fishes were created from Pepsi Mineral Water bottles.

Instructing a young residents how to glue the bottle caps for the backdrop piece.

Peg Art

I have been interested in Cloth Pegs from my childhood days. We used to peg our nose and make funny faces (Ouch, it still hurts). Mother taught me that Cloths Pegs could be used for different functions other than for drying cloths in the sun. Now I find them as a fantastic material to paint on and create works of art. Because the pegs are wooden they can be finished in a number of ways; you can paint, varnish or stain them. The great thing about using pegs as a crafting material is that they are more or less uniform. You will find odd pegs that are a little shorter than the others. However this is infrequent, and can add to the charm of the finished item, adding character.

At Art Explorers, we had a good week producing art on wooden Cloth Pegs. Children had a lot of fun. Here are some photos.

Patric Rozario
Doha, Qatar
21 Nov 2012

Gestural Drawing

Last week we had an exciting art class, where I taught young artist how to make ‘Gestural Drawing’. I pasted on the wall a drawing of a famous personality. But it was pasted in such a way they could not make out who that person was. They simply had to record with their eyes, every detail, and copy them on their drawing pad. With no language to describe, and no Left Brain activity, they  simply had to register every possible detail and use only their Right Brain. In 15 minutes time, we had some interesting record of what exactly they saw.

The concept of right brain and left brain thinking developed from the research in the late 1960s of an American psycho-biologist Roger W Sperry. He discovered that the human brain has two very different ways of thinking. One (the right brain) is visual and processes information in an intuitive and simultaneous way, looking first at the whole picture then the details. The other (the left brain) is verbal and processes information in an analytical and sequential way, looking first at the pieces then putting them together to get the whole. Sperry was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1981.

When you start a drawing, you need to  visualize the final art in your mind (right brain, working from the whole), then develop the drawing, choosing the elements, putting in the right tones and values, placing in the shadows and highlights (right brain, working on various things simultaneously).

Color Shaper Workshop

October 12, 2012.
We gathered for a workshop on acrylic painting. Artists were introduced to the Color Shaper and Acrylic Matt Gel.

The Color Shapers are used for creating all kinds of unusual painterly effects and textural interest in your paintings.The Colour Shaper’s silicone tip gives you a combination of control, precision and fluidity that are uniquely inspiring; they take you beyond improvised tools and allow you to create exciting textures, marks and effects….a perfect complement to your brushes and palette knives.

Colour Shapers are extremely useful when working in the fine detail of your work, whether painting, model making or sculpting you can pick up the smallest amount of medium and control it with ease. Colour Shaper perfect for applying masking fluid for water color artists.

The Colour Shaper’s silicone tip does not absorb paint like a brush so it can be cleaned simply with a wipe – dried paint and glue can be peeled right off.

 

Valerie baked denim cup cakes for us.

Session 4: Art must have a purpose – Creating painting gifts for friends we could not meet.

Session 4 of art gift creation was held on Saturday 22nd Sept. Usual venue: Artist Patric Rozario’s residence lobby. Though the usual large group of children were not present this week, a small number of 11 children was enough to continue the spirit of ‘creating with a purpose’. While some children created newer pieces of painting, others worked on improving and fine-tuning paintings that were created earlier on.

Here are the photos. Not present are Kamini and Shradha. Thank you all.

The next painting session will be on 6th October. Please confirm early if you will be participating.