VCUarts Qatar interior designer channels love for nature into art and design

Doha, Qatar: For the past few weeks, visitors walking down the corridors of VCUarts Qatar have been pausing to admire a series of paintings within the glass-cased Project Spaces on the ground floor of the University.

The paintings, part of an exhibition titled “Home Through My Eyes” that runs until February 8, 2024, focus on Qatar’s desert landscape.

The range of scenery depicted, the intricate details, the contrast of pastel and bold hues, and the delicate layers that add a three-dimensional depth, conjure up the image of an experienced artist who, with sensitivity and skill, has captured Qatar’s natural beauty. 

Hence, it’s hard to believe that the person behind the artworks, Hissa Al Khuzaei, an Interior Design Junior, was introduced to oil painting only in her second year at VCUarts Qatar and that this exhibition is her first solo one. Al Khuzaei says, “In the spring of 2023, in my sophomore year, I took a class titled ‘Painting From Within’. Though I had limited experience with acrylic paints, the class was my first exposure to oil paints. 

“Professor Payne, who led the class, introduced me to the basic techniques and nuances of this medium. He even provided several painting books to enhance my learning experience. Under his mentorship, I quickly picked up the skills.  It was a journey. I’d go so far as to say it taught me a bit about myself as well. For instance, it required me to be patient, waiting for each layer to dry before applying the next. I realized it is that layering that allows the artist to add more depth to a painting.”

She continues, “What I particularly appreciated about this course was the freedom it offered in choosing my area of study. I decided to focus on bringing the natural beauty of my home country, Qatar, to life through my artwork.”

Al Khuzaei is a nature lover. Her interest in nature was inspired by her great-grandfather, a nature-based medicine expert who ran a shop in the old Souq Waqif.

As a child, she would wait impatiently for the weekend visits to their family farm in Al Shamal, in the north of Qatar. Those weekends were made up of endless rambles, collecting twigs, leaves and flowers and observing indigenous flora and fauna.

When Al Khuzaei joined VCUarts Qatar, she discovered multiple avenues to channel her love for the environment. While a Junior, she wrote a research paper titled ‘Technology in Disconnecting the New Generation from Nature’, highlighting how technology had inadvertently led to decreased interaction between each generation and nature. The research paper was part of her coursework in class. Additionally, she infuses her designs for interiors with materials and muted greens and beiges inspired by the desert environment.