We recently came across an incredibly talented 22-year-old Artist. His name is Yousef Hisham and he's based in Cairo, Egypt. Yousef is a medicine student and self-taught artist with a particular interest in Watercolors. His journey in Art started only four years ago after joining a visual art appreciation group, gradually Yousef got a better understanding of what makes amazing art.
Yousef then began teaching himself how to draw and paint, he discovered a natural attraction to the dreamlike states of Watercolors and then decided upon himself that this will be the medium he was to focus on. Yousef now takes his brush and canvas everywhere and uses it to share the beauty of the world through his paintings.
Qubbat Al Sakhra
We personally spoke with Yousef about his art and practice. Here's what he had to say...
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MySalahMat - Who inspired you to follow the path of Art?
Yousef- Claude Monet! He is one of the pioneers of the impressionist school of painting, he wanted to capture the colours of nature, their essence and not necessarily its details, and this led painting in a new direction where Art is appreciated according to the emotion it evokes in you and not how detailed it is.
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MySalahMat- How does your religion influence your art?
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Yousef- My knowledge that everything created in nature is made by Allah, made me eager to discover more of it, and I use painting as a tool for that, It helps me observe his creations with new eyes and share the beauty of his creation to the world.
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MySalahMat - What advice do you have for someone starting out learning a craft?
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Yousef- There is usually someone else that had walked down the same path before you, observe them, follow their paths, learn from them. Never stop learning new things even if it is out of your scope, it will eventually influence the way you think and the way you create and will help to develop your own style. And most importantly, you have to work, work every day into developing your skills until it becomes second nature. you are not a painter until you have painted hundreds of paintings. Try, fail, learn, grow, repeat that's the sequence.
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The Kaaba (الكعبة) also referred to as al-Kaʿbah al-Musharrafah (ٱلْكَعْبَة ٱلْمُشَرَّفَة - 'Honored Ka'bah')
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MySalahMat - Do you have a favourite piece of art? And why?
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Yousef- Waterlilies by Claude Monet. They are gigantic, they span across an entire room and they magically transfer you through time to his personal garden where he enjoyed all the colours of his water lilies. Observe closely and you will even start hearing sounds, sounds of birds chirping in the background and tiny hisses of insects, that's how good this painting is at evoking emotions
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MySalahMat - Tell us about your art, how would you describe it?
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Yousef - It's a bit spontaneous, frivolous, with the least amount of details needed to deliver my subject I seek to evoke an emotion, give you the feeling I was having while painting this piece
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Sheikh Zayed Mosque
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MySalahMat - Why do you love painting?
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Yousef- Painting is the way I use to get out of my mind, It makes me leave my physical place and sends me to a transcendent state where I experience nothing, where I lose the sense of time and space.
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MySalahMat - How was your experience working with MySalahaMat?
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Yousef - Yes it has been my pleasure doing this and contributing to such a cause, I hope we will even collaborate more in the future. I think it's a perfect invention, much needed in our modern-day, to offer religious teachings to our minors with modern ways that appeal to them, I can imagine how they are enjoying Salah now.
Thank you Yousef for your time and for allowing us to ask you these questions. We'd also like to say thank you for painting our beloved MySalahMat next to the Beautiful Masjids.
The colourful prayer mat seen in each of these photos is the MySalahMat. The worlds first education interactive prayer mat.
My Salah Mat is a prayer mat designed to educate children on how to perform the Muslim prayer in a fun and enjoyable way. The interactive prayer mat is touch-sensitive and has pre-recorded keys that can be touched to reveal the sound, such as prayer times, how to do wudu, recite surahs, say duas, and much more.
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