𝐎𝐥𝐝 𝐂𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐨⁣⁣⁣ - share’ al Moiz

⁣⁣⁣Size: 18” x 20” // Medium: Watercolours on Arches Watercolour Paper

I painted this streetscape of the ancient street - share’ al Moizz le Deenillah, in al Qahira al Moizziyah (old Cairo), with a limited colour palette of only 3 watercolours: Prussian Blue, Burnt Sienna and Vermillion. ⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣

This dull colour scheme was purposefully chosen to create a sombre mood and to reflect the emptiness in the streets that would otherwise buzz with pedestrians, tourists and vendors.⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣

The recent lockdowns have not only emptied our streets and limited human interactions, but also seem to have trapped us in our individual prisons of uncertainty and fear of the unknown. ⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣The morose brown and blue shadows of the painting are draping the street, veiling the old buildings, flooding down on to the street and then spilling over to the other side. However, these shadows seem to lift as the eye moves upwards to the vermillion wash, above on the right, stretching up onto the minaret. A minaret is where the muezzin gives ‘adhan’, call to prayer, to call the faithful towards ’namaz’, Muslim prayers. The call of faith frees us from our personal predicaments and guides us towards that what is larger and more valuable than all our lives put together.

Our 𝐟𝐚𝐢𝐭𝐡 in our Creator!⁣ ⁣⁣⁣⁣𝘖𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘱𝘩𝘰𝘵𝘰𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘱𝘩 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘯 𝘣𝘺 @the.abi_7