About The Artist
Having grown up in East London surrounded by several artists, I developed a creative spirit and a keen interest in various forms of arts and crafts. As a child, I would paint and draw in my spare time, but my parents were always of the opinion that there was no real career in pursuing art. Having given up on my art as a career, I began studying Law at University. With my art taking a back seat, I graduated with honours in Law LLB.
The next few years after graduation were somewhat of a blur, with me trying to juggle my young family as well as being a self-employed stay at home mum, life became really fast paced for me. While raising my 3 children, I began exploring art again as a form of emotional release. This is where I became passionate about art again and in particular, Arabic calligraphy. To me, it was a whole new world of beauty, the words of my Lord in an artistic form to allow the viewer to constantly remember our Creator. After passionately studying the craft in any free time I had, I began incorporating Arabic calligraphy into my abstract art pieces. No doubt, this gave my pieces meaning and life! A kind of life I have never seen before, almost ethereal. My Art encompasses the traditional Arabic found in Quranic scripts with the bold contemporary Art we know today. My work is hugely inspired by my faith and identity of being a Muslim woman growing up in the West, learning to balance both my spiritual world with my modern lifestyle.
With encouragement from friends and family, I set up an Instagram page and a Youtube channel to share my art with the world. The response was immense to say the least. Not long after, I was painting commission pieces for hundreds of customers, all who kept coming back to me for more. I continued to perfect my techniques, continued to learn and grow as my arts took off.
The joy I feel knowing my art is in thousands of homes worldwide is like no other, a feeling I will never truly get over. Fast forward to today, I launched my website www.qalbcalligraphy.com to make my art more accessible to buy. I hope my customers find comfort in my art as much as I enjoy painting them!
Sumaiyyah
