Looking Back Two Years and Remembering Samir Sobhy, RIP

Samir Sobhy - colleague, artist, poet, author passed away on UNICEF Day, 11 December 2020. Your XUNICEF family remembers you, dear Samir, through your art, poetry and writing and your dedication to a better life for children throughout the world.

"No elegy no prose, Funeral, or candle,
Just a red rose." Samir Sobhy

Samir's Drawings and Paintings

Here is Samir's own story of his passion for art.

Samir Sobhy - Long Travels Through A Career of Art

I started drawing when I was about 6 or 7 years old, and around 11 years old started painting in watercolor (shortly followed by oil). As a child, I had only pencil and pen as tools, and so naturally I started by making drawings, not paintings. As a teenager, without really realizing how important drawing was, l worked hard to improve my skills. Fortunately, my father had a fairly good number of art books, including works by European masters.

Male Figure in Colour Pencil

I never obtained any degree in art, but attended many art classes in Cairo, Paris, New York, and Dakar. These classes covered painting, drawing, sculpture, graphics, design, and fashion.

I started my art career in painting using watercolor, but since I had not yet benefited from any artistic instructions, the results were poor! Years later, after attending many watercolor workshops, listening to excellent instructors, reading and observing masterpieces in watercolor, I still find the medium extremely daunting, though enjoyable, with one successful painting out of ten!!

When l started to attend art classes, I focused my attention on one particular technique: the capacity to make one single contour line to capture the form, without ever using an eraser! I had to get it right the first time. This needed certain requirements: l had to have control over my hand; my eye had to be coordinated and synchronized with my hand. As my skills and my experience improved, l learned how to avoid the monotony of a single line by making it thinner in parts and thicker in others.

My style, technique, and subject matter changed drastically over my long artistic career. Under the influence of the impressionists, my colors were light and my style was loose. but soon my palette got darker, and my subjects became more somber, not to say macabre, Mainly influenced by Dali, I passed through a long period of surrealism.

However, I always responded to my environment. While in Saudi Arabia for a couple of years, I only dealt with 3 subjects: bedouin jewelry, oriental carpets, and impressions of a primitive traditional village near Riyadh.

Ring and Necklace, Pastel

Baobob

During some 10 years in Dakar, Senegal, I was introduced to the majestic and imposing baobab trees, and the fascinating, enigmatic Gorée Island, of which I had a wonderful view from my apartment in Dakar.

Gorée Sunrise, Pastel

More recently I have experimented with marbling. Marbling is an old technique allowing the creation of designs resembling the veins and patterns of marble. This is achieved by filling a tray with water (clear or ‘sized’ by adding certain medium), followed by applying special colors to the surface, which should not sink to the bottom of the tray. Patterns and designs are then made by the artist by moving colors to create various forms, generally imitating marble.

At present I am focusing on landscapes in oil as well as watercolor, with occasional still life and flower arrangements.
  

Wheat Hill, on paper

Editor's Note: In retirement Samir worked as a professional artist and sold his paintings via galleries and his own website. Unfortunately, his website has expired. If anyone has a copy of the pages showing his paintings in later life, please share with us.

Poetry - two of many

Les Saisons - from Samir's 'Poemes pour les Jeunes'

La variété des saisons m’éblousisse,
Me laisse rêveuse et enchantée,
Ravive mon esprit et me réjouisse,

Le printemps rafraîchit et rajeunisse,
M’entoure de lumière et de couleurs, Donne
Espoir et nous épanouisse,

L’été, symbole de récolte et richesse, Me fait
Travailler et transpirer,
Son soleil me bronze et me caresse.

L’automne, ce peintre de talent et finesse,
Offre des tableaux rouges, jaunes et oranges,
Des ombres longues de mélancolie et tristesse

L’hiver couvre ma vie de sa nappe lisse,
Blanche, poudreuse et immaculée
Sur laquelle je joue, tombe et glisse.

Death - from Samir's 'Haiku-Inspired Poems'

Life’s winter has come, No turning

Back,

What will become?

Life’s a puzzle to all, How dreadful

Will be our fall?

I reached the end, Tired, disenchanted.

What’s behind the bend?

You speak of Heaven, Eternal Bliss and

Paradise, What proof is given?

My lovely, farewell,

In serenity and dignity, Travel well.

So, you come for me, Let’s hastily

Depart, Tell: what will be?

No more light, Flower or Spring, Only

Dark night.

Cloaked dark visitor, Claiming souls,

How sinister!

No elegy no prose, Funeral, or candle,

Just a red rose.

Moonlight shimmered, Pond carp

Jumped, Two lovers drowned,

I sat weary by seashore. Soon time will

come

To shut my door.

Abandoned old cemetery, The

Deceased forgotten, Not even a

memory

Books - Samir was one of our most published authors

See Samir's pages in Amazon books by clicking here.