Those with an artistic temperament have a forward, private and a personal inner ‘push' to create something new for the sake of self expression as well as for enjoyment. He has a compulsion to search and to expand on the meaning and the purpose of mankind in this world. It becomes a responsibility. Listening to artists, reading and attending events, such as, exhibitions, all combine to form a personal style of expression. Sherrifa Al-Sudairy is a self-taught Saudi artist who has gradually through experience and determination, acquired a variety of genuine skills that have evolved into a distinct and recognizable style. “Oil painting, mixed media, airbrush and drawing express my passion for portraiture... I work in my two-room studio in the South of Riyadh, exit 23 in Sueldy,” she said. “For some 20 years, I have been studying and painting domes, minarets as well as a broad range of Islamic themes and subjects,” she continued, adding that she has made paintings of “birds, starry nights, sand dunes, horse sand and camels”. In Al-Sudairy's explorations of the world around her, she became particularly interested in rediscovering her own culture. Men and women took on a special place in her heart and she felt that it was her obligation to portray traditional oil paintings in unique settings of the past and of the present. She loved and relished her background and wanted to educate the people in the Kingdom and beyond. “In terms of color, I work primarily with black and white. For a long time, I was afraid of color,” said Al-Sudairy. “I felt intimidated, but gradually, I began with shades in browns that complemented my topics and subjects,” she explained, adding that detailed portraiture and traditional oil paintings of men and women established her personal sense of color in all her work. Indeed, color is a very important element in Al-Sudairy's work that separates her from the techniques of other Saudi artists. Interestingly, in the recent decades, technology has had a direct influence on arts that has been highly positive, and “has simplified my creative goals and actions”. Al-Sudairy said that her artistic life has become organized, and now it is easier to communicate with artists across the Kingdom and abroad. “Digital techniques have become very important in my creative work, as I am now able through software to organize my work and to keep an accurate record of the work which I have produced through the years,” she said. “I am now able to catalogue all of my work in one form or the other. Technology reflects all my past changes and suggests where I might go next. It is a clear window to my soul,” Al-Sudairy said. In 1997, she was honored with an award in which she stood at the fifth place at the International Beniale in Florence, Italy. “It was a silver medal and I felt that I had been professionally rewarded for all of my years of study, observation and attending exhibitions on a broad range of styles in the Kingdom and abroad,” Al-Sudairy said. “I have become a competitive professional Saudi woman artist in my own right, and since then have enjoyed a great sense of pride in all of the work that I tackle, whether it is spontaneous or is produced after extensive research,” she said.
