It's been an emotional week with news of the passing of two very famous personalities (Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain) and the french man who threw himself off the roof of the Grand Mosque in Makkah.  As a result, we've all been seeing a lot of posts addressing issues of mental health and suicide in particular.  It's so hard to imagine sometimes how people who have had so much success in life,  been such an inspiration to others, and brought so much joy can themselves be depressed and struggling with mental health issues.

​Mental health continues to be a stigma and a topic that people are very uncomfortable approaching.  I touched on this subject a little bit not too long ago in this post here  where I talk about things that are my guiding light that help me to get out of dark times or help to lessen my anxiety.  It isn't always so 'simple' though, you can't just tell someone to snap out of it, look at the positives, and do what makes them happy because at times something as seemingly simple as getting out of bed can be an impossible task.  

Our mental health, just like physical health is  sometimes not in our control- no one would be judgmental or blame someone for being diagnosed with a fatal disease. If you know someone that has become distant, aren't themselves anymore, or isn't around when they once used to be... reach out to them, let them know that they're not alone, that you care, and help them get the help that they may need in order to begin the process of healing. You never know how some kind words could potentially lead to saving someone's life.  Please know that I am always here if anyone ever wants to talk or needs to get their mind off of things (with no judgement) via some good food, a listening ear, or some art therapy.  Life is such a precious gift, and it is so so very  beautiful.   

© Ammara Cokar 2018

It's currently the holy month of Ramadan for Muslims who fast from pre-dawn until sunset. Where I live that's approximately from 3:30 am until 9:40 pm these days.  Fasting isn't just about not eating- it's like spiritual training that we go through to build will power, improve our character, really be mindful and aware of those people that are less fortunate than us.  We don't consume food or drinks during the day along with abstaining from a lot of other things such as backbiting, anger, vulgar language etc.  Ramadan is also a month in which we give more charity and volunteer more of our time to the less fortunate.  I've read in many places that it takes 21 days to form a habit and I feel like fasting for an entire month really helps build habits that are meant to carry you through the rest of the year.  

This abstract painting is of the Kaaba which is usually synonymous with Hajj, or pilgrimage which Muslims will go to in about two months' time.  People also go to mecca year round and the crowds are especially large during the month of Ramadan.   The circles around the Kaaba represent the people that are circumambulating the Kaaba together in harmony and unity while praising and worshiping the One God.  

I've added some texture onto this piece through gold foil on the Kaaba itself and some modeling paste and glass beads in the crowd of people.  The glass and foil look particularly pretty when reflecting light.  

© Ammara Cokar 2018

I made a giant 3 foot by 3 foot canvas, this is the biggest painting I've ever made and I really thoroughly enjoyed the process.  This painting is very special to me because it has so much meaning behind it and I was so very honored to be commissioned to make this .  A good friend asked me to make a painting with a sunflower because sunflowers used to be her late sister's favorite. 

I chose to make three flowers because growing up we've always known this family and we referred to them as the 'three sisters', when we'd ask my mom where we are going she would say 'the three baji's house' and baji means sister in our language.  The three flowers represent the three amazing ladies and this painting is in honor of the girl that passed away much too soon.  ​

I hung it up by my couch to show the size of it because I think it's really hard to tell when you see just the painting on it's own.  It's massive and I love it so very much.  

​© Ammara Cokar 2018

Life can throw plenty of dark or hard times at us, we all have our own demons and struggles. I don’t often talk about the meaning behind my work, often times I start working on my Mixed Media pieces having no idea what they will turn into. This piece however, I feel the need to speak about. I’ve chosen to represent a journey through hard times on this canvas. Difficulties are represented here by the dark rainy cloud, but within that rain there’s always some beauty that can be found in the form of lessons learnt, finding out who’s really there for you and growing as a person. No matter what, there’s always SO much to be grateful for and sometimes you just need to focus and block out all the noise to see it.

I've been meaning to share this painting on my blog for quite some time now, this painting is very close to my heart.  It is of the Kaaba, or the building at the center of the most sacred mosque.  This is the direction that Muslims pray in and it is the place that Muslims go to for pilgrimage at least once in a lifetime.    

This was made as a commissioned piece, and it now lives on a living room wall in Vancouver.  This canvas is 24x36 inches so 2 feet by 3 feet, the largest canvas I've made.  This is an acrylic painting and the gold on the kaaba itself is real gold foil.  ​

​© Ammara Cokar 2018

I've shared some of my paintings out of order, this is actually the very first mosque painting that I made and It's really special to me because it started a whole group of paintings that people are really connecting to.   There isn't really much else that I can say about this painting so I'll just let it speak for itself.   

I've taken techniques out of my mixed media/ art journal and brought them on to the canvas with the addition of the mosque.  This is the Sultan Ahmed Mosque in Turkey, better known as the Blue Mosque.  The next mosque painting I made was the Putrajaya Mosque.

This is an acrylic painting that I made of a make-believe city skyline and it's reflection.  There are a lot of layers in this painting,  I used a palette knife to create the buildings as well as their reflections.  It's hard to capture all the texture that layering paints over one another create on the canvas.  I kept all the lines in the buildings and the background vertical to give them the illusion of moving or floating in space.   This city reminds different people of different places that they've been to.  Some people told me that they thought it was New York, or Bangkok, or Gotham City from Batman...that city do you see in this painting?       

Over the past few months I have been trying to bring out some of the techniques that I've developed in my art journal onto the canvas. One thing I learnt from experimenting in my journal is that I really enjoy building up layers, I love the process and the resulting texture and depth which add so much more interest to the image.  

​This first painting is called "Tranquility" and is of a waterfall inspired by my trip to Thailand.  Nothing makes me feel more at peace and calm inside than being outside in nature.  I used modeling paste to add three dimensional texture to the canvas and the painting was done using acrylic paints and mediums.  The gold in the falling water has real gold flakes in it as well.  

This second painting " Luminescence" was inspired by some caves on Railay Beach  just off of Krabi in Thailand.   This one also has a lot of texure on it and the white part is pearly when the light shines on it.  I used acrylic paints and mediums along with gold and silver foil on this painting.  

I'm proud to say that both of these paintings have found a home.  I think that combining inspiration from my travels along with techniques from my years of art journaling and scrapbooking is resulting in creating things that are being noticed and loved by others which is something I'm truly grateful for.  

© Ammara Cokar 2017

The sunsets in Thailand were so spectacular that they looked completely unreal, I've never seen the sun look so massive in the sky or the types of colors that the light would create.  I tried to catch a sunset every single day that I was there if I could.  

This painting is called introspection and the boat is a long tail boat, the kind that are basically water taxis.  I used actual sand from Thailand in the beach portion of this painting.  This was my first attempt at a sunset painting but I think I may try again.  ​

​© Ammara Cokar 2017

I wanted to dedicate a post to some old paintings from a couple years ago that kind of started off my journey into developing more of my own style when it came to putting things onto canvas.  I still haven't found my niche but my style has definitely evolved over time, mostly because of the techniques that I've been exploring in my art journal.  These paintings were inspired by henna designs from my culture.  So here's some old paintings that I wanted to share. 

In this color wheel, I did manage to make a really nice orange, as well as a green.  However, I was unable to get anything very purple.  The 'purple' color turned out to be quite murky.  It's still purple, but it isn't bright.  The reason this muddy color was created instead of bright purple is because paints always have something called a color bias.  Paints can never be a pure red, blue, or yellow- this is due to the chemicals that are mixed with the pigments.  

So, when you see a red paint, it will have either a blue or a yellow bias, blue paint will have a red or a green bias, and yellow will have a green or a red bias.  The bias is based on which primary color the color you're looking at lies next to on the color wheel.  

In order to understand how the paints you have are biased it's a good idea to try mixing them together and see what happens.  

In the image above I tried mixing red with three different blues; Phthalo Blue, Ceruleun Blue, and Ultamarine Blue.  The Phthalo Blue here has a slight green bias.  So when I tried mixing the magenta (or red) with Phthalo Blue, it will make a muddy purple because the blue itself has a little bit of green in it. When you take all three primary colors and mix them together, you get a brown, muddy color.  Since the Phthalo blue has green in it (which is next to yellow) you're mixing red, blue, and a tiny bit of yellow together which makes a muddy purple.    

© Ammara Cokar 2015