شیما کلباسی

“This was a big storm and he might as well enjoy it. It was ruining everything, but you might as well enjoy it.”

Ernest Hemingway’s writings were some of the first books I read as a child. He is a master of dialogue but also an artist when it comes to describing events and images. This painting was inspired by his writings.

Storm
Oil on canvas
36 H x 36 W x 1.5 in

I based my painting, Shoreless, on a poem by the Persian poet, Attar of Nishapur (c. 1145 – c. 1221)

The home we seek is in eternity;
The truth we seek is like a shoreless sea

Shoreless
Oil on canvas
48 W x 36 H x 1.5 in

This painting was based on a writing by Paulo Coelho.

 “From where I am,” the sun said, “I can see the Soul of the World. It communicates with my soul, and together we cause the plants to grow and the sheep to seek out shade. From where I am — and I am a long way from the earth — I learned how to love.” — Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

Oil on canvas, acrylic

In 2003 I flew to Denmark in December. My mother had just passed away. Mournful, I looked out of the plane’s window. Stunning landscapes, which may have been Iceland’s, were fluttering their colors at me. I have tried to exhibit the memory of those landscapes in this painting.

Shadow of the Viking Mother
Oil and acrylic on canvas
48 W x 36 H x 1.5 in

Ukraine International Airline Flight 752 was a scheduled international passenger flight from Tehran to Kiev. On January 8, 2020, Iranian missiles hit Ukrainian plane after take off from Tehran. All 176 passengers and crew died. The shoot-down occurred during the 2019-2020 Persian Gulf crisis. I based this painting on the sounds and sights of that attack.

Flight 752
House paint, acrylic, oil
36 W x 48 H x 1.5 in

It took me over a year and layers of oil and acrylic and cutting and slicing through the paint to get it where I wanted it to be. The painting was inspired by my nature walks when I lived next to a lake in Nærum, Denmark. The colors were inspired by my visits to fabric stores as a child in Tehran, Iran. My cousin, a young teacher who would travel to the capital and stay with my parents over the summer, loved making her own dresses. The sensuous experience of feeling those perfectly folded fabrics and beautiful colors have provided me with a wealth of memory from those places.

Autumn Frost
Oil and acrylic on canvas
24 H x 30 W x 1.5