Imam Ali (a.s) in Surrealism and Expressionism!

 Before

After

Expressionism

I chose Expressionism as my second style because it would help bring out the personality of Ali ibn Abu Talib (a.s). In order to do that, I decided to use a lot of light colours and curvy lines. Due to such, I managed to give a tranquil and heavenly -like mood to the painting, which helped show Ali (a.s) Saintly personality. I specifically chose to use blue and white because both colours are symbols of purity and peace, though blue also symbolizes nobility, which also represents Ali (a.s).

Surrealism

The reason why I decided to remake my portfolio piece using a Surrealist approach was because there are many symbols that can represent the man in the picture. The man in the picture is Ali ibn Abu Talib (a.s) , the cousin and successor of the Prophet (SAWA) and he had many titles. One of his major titles was Abu Turaab (meaning ‘father of dust’) and that title inspired me to make his robe and banner blend into the sand, making it look like he was also rising from the desert sands.  The rising from the dust is another symbol that represents how Ali’s (a.s) knowledge and teachings will never fade away, no matter what. Another symbol that I placed into the picture was the ring that acted as a halo. The reason why I placed the ring into the picture was because there is a story which Ali (a.s) gave his ring to a beggar while he (Ali) was praying. The ring symbolises how charitable Ali (a.s) was and the reason why I made it a halo was to show Ali (a.s) saint like status.  The last and most important symbol that was placed into this painting was the golden door. This represents one of his titles, which is ‘The Door to the City of Knowledge’.