DUBAI: Eight Pakistani women artists braved the summer heat for three days late last month to paint a truck art mural in Dubai as a cheerful reminder to patients at a medical center not to lose hope during the pandemic.
The 10-feet-high and 20-feet-wide mural brightens up an entire wall in the premises of the Pakistan Association in Dubai (PAD) and is visible from the welfare organization’s health care facility for patients to see.
“The idea behind painting this mural was to give back to the community and spread positivity,” president of the Overseas Pakistani Artists Fraternity (OPAF) and one of the mural’s painters, Masooma Rizvi, told Arab News on Sunday.
“We completed the project despite the fact that temperatures were touching 40 degrees celsius,” Dubai-based Rizvi said.
Under the vivid painting which depicts well-known monuments from Pakistan and Dubai, the artists wrote an Urdu couplet often found on the bright cargo trucks on Pakistani highways: “Go in wellness. Return in wellness.”
Undated photo of a mural painted by a team of eight Pakistani female artists at the Pakistan Association in Dubai, UAE. (AN Photo/Masooma Rizvi)
Maria Faridi, an artist with a focus on calligraphy, said she took part in the project despite having no experience of working on murals.
“The wall we painted is just next to a place where children play cricket and also where patients coming into the Pakistan Medical Center at PAD can see it directly... so it is very prominent,” Faridi said. “Since I do calligraphy and I know how to mix colors, I wrote the Urdu couplet on the mural and painted the buildings.”
Sumbal Umbreen Abidi paints a mural at the Pakistan Association in Dubai, UAE, on March 26, 2021 (AN Photo/Masooma Rizvi)
Sumbal Umbreen Abidi, an art teacher who also took part in the project, told Arab News all the artists wanted was to provide people motivation through color.
“The situation is very challenging for everyone nowadays,” Dubai-based Abidi said. “The idea was to use bright colors to cheer people up.”
