It has been more than 25 years since Iranian-Canadian artist Farahnaz Samari began painting.
She has showcased her art in more than 80 solo and group exhibitions in both Iran and Canada. Having participated in several ‘art battles’ alongside other artists, she won the ‘Battle of the Brush’ position at two of such art competitions.
“My first style was inspired by artist J. M. W. Turner; images of floating in an emerald blue sea have been my inspiration for the series of my paintings,” explains Samari, who graduated with Honours in Fine Arts & Interior Design from the University of Tehran.
After coming to Vancouver, she went on to further her education and graduated with a degree from Emily Carr University.
Inspiration and style of painting
“With a flair for the abstract, my art is contemporary and formative,” says Samari.
Over the last few years, her art has been purchased by collectors, designers and galleries across the globe. As seen on her website, she has many series that she paints under, namely New wave, Dreamscapes, Inner child, Crow collection and Flower collection. Living on the edge of the ocean, in the city of North Vancouver is inspirational for Samari.
“It gives me a positive energy and a feeling of silence,” she says.
Eventually, she changed her soft blending background with the foreground influenced by the duality of cubism, geometric shapes and colour. For her most recent series, Living on the edge and Inner child, she has taken inspiration from the works of Matisse and Picasso.
Her series, Living on the edge, is inspired by and an ode to the city of Vancouver. For this series, she focused more on the composition between colours and shapes, forms and lines and on layering to depict the many layers of the city herself.
Samari’s paintings attempt to show the change and constant movement of people, the states and life in them. Her attempt is to depict light at the end of every turn of life and for this, she uses a unique symbol – the crow.
“For me, the crow is a symbol of light – a sign that people are searching for in the hopes of rescuing the only planet they have to live on,” Samari explains.
The North Vancouver art crawl and other exhibitions
Before COVID-19 hit the world, Samari had a pleasant experience through the North Shore Art Crawl. It shed light to her studio, and she was happy to have many visitors.
“Honestly, I prefer live shows to virtual ones,” admits Samari.
Unfortunately because of the situation in the city, she did not have any visitors at her studio this year. Fortunately, most of her paintings are available in galleries all over Vancouver, and there are many that are available in her studio, where she even accepts commissions and various sells prints.
In this year’s North Shore Artists’ Spring show, Samari will have three of her paintings exhibited. This is a virtual art show that will begin on April 25, 2021 and will go on for three weeks, until May 16.
In addition to creating art, Samari also hosts art classes and workshops.
More information on Samari’s art and her classes can be found on her website: www.farahnazart.com, and more information on the North Shore Artists’ Guild, including their upcoming exhibition, can be found on their website: www.nsartists.ca and www.northvanarts.ca.
