Banker’s tryst with colours

Banker Mayasa Al Suwaidi is an artist of her own terms – when she is not busy in board meetings and drowning in financial statistics, the mother-of-three exercises her artistic streak in her studio at home which she lovingly calls ‘The Space’.

Mayasa, a superintendent of IT planning and development at the Central Bank of Bahrain, casts aside the demands of her day-time corporate responsibilities to allow her imagination to flow at the easel.

She said: “I have completed my bachelor’s degree in mathematics and a post graduate diploma in business administration … and now I am an artist too. I have never learned art but it is a hobby that I have adapted and am determined to pursue.”

 Mayasa, 35, from Riffa, started to paint as a means of fighting stress. She explained: “I began to paint in 2005. Art was a medium for me to help find a creative release and carve a place of space for myself. I wanted to play with colours and I also wanted to try to tell a story through my paintings.”

Although she did not enrol in formal classes, Mayasa took plenty of advice from close friends with whom she shared and discussed her paintings.

In 2007, she participated in her first group exhibition at a Bahrain Arts Society event in Budaiya. Her work received critical acclaim and positive responses from visitors and artists. She said: “I even had a businessman ask for my art work. That was a very thrilling and proud experience for me.”

Her works of art have now also been chosen by publishers for book covers. In May she displayed seven paintings in the first Bahraini Female Artists Annual Exhibition and is now planning a solo exhibition.

Mayasa has also tried out different realms in painting such as abstract art where she has created a series of paintings made over different canvases but conveying the same messages. In the near future she hopes to tap into the artistic grandeur of Arabic calligraphy.

Aside from her professional and artist endeavours, Mayasa is also an accomplished writer. She is working on a book on children’s stories. She said: “I was inspired by a friend, Shahnaz Bahman, a specialist in emotional intelligence. In the Arab world we don’t have stories that take care of the subject – for children especially.”

The book is scheduled to be released next year.