May-June 2011 Abu Dhabi workshops

Student's work from the Higher College of Technology, Abu Dhabi.

Firstly, to all of my blog readers – I am so sorry for the delay in updating my posts! These past few months have been crazy busy, and it’s been difficult to find the time and space to sit down and write about what I’ve been up to. To give you an idea of how much has been going on – over the past 6 weeks, I’ve completed and handed in all of the artwork for my children’s book (and the publishers and pleased, so YAY!) I’ve been preparing for workshops and teaching in Abu Dhabi (lots of hard work, but also lots of fun). I have also had my end-of-year PhD assessment (scary, but it went better than I thought). Sorry if you have been missing my posts! I hope to write more about my children’s book and PhD work soon.

Last month, I spent 2 weeks teaching Islamic art classes in Abu Dhabi with the Prince’s School of Traditional Arts. Myself, along with 2 other teachers from the School were asked to deliver workshops at Shaykh Zayed University, the Higher College of Technology and Shaykh Zayed Girl’s Academy.

Both of the images above are examples of the student’s work from the Higher College of Technology. They worked on group projects over 3 sessions (each session lasting approx. 1 and a half hours). In the first session, students were taught principles of traditional Islamic design, such as geometry and arabesque patterning. The remainder of the time was spent painting their group projects – large illuminated pages, intended to mimic traditional illuminated Qur’anic frontispieces.

Below are 2 mihrab designs (prayer niches) from the classes that we taught at Shaykh Zayed University. The first is a design for wood, while the second is a design for plaster.

I hope to be back with more posts, soon!