Three separate booths at the 31st Doha International Book Fair (DIBF) 2022, which concludes today, is showcasing the creations of a number of artists in Qatar highlighting the country's culture, environment among others.
“We have three booths to display the artworks. At one booth, we have live paintings by artists while at the other one we have display of the works of more than 15 artists and at the third booth there are digital art works,” Fahd al-Maadeed, head of the Fine Art pavilion told Gulf Times.


Qatari artist Dana al-Safar, engaged in a painting at the venue


DIBF-2022, held under the slogan 'Knowledge is Light', features literary works of local, regional, and internationally-renowned authors and publishers from 37 countries across the globe.
Organised by the Ministry of Culture's Qatar Cultural and Heritage Events Centre, the fair opened on January 13.
Nine embassies are participating, while the US embassy is the guest of honour.
Al-Maadeed said that all the works presented at the event display various aspects of life in Qatar.


Qatari artist Fahd al-Maadeed at one of the art booths at DIBF-2022. PICTURE: Shaji Kayamkulam


“All the paintings display different facts about Qatar, its heritage, society, culture, environment and beyond. The artists have painted His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and His Highness the Father Amir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani. We have also paintings about the book fair and the message convey by it,” explained al-Maadeed.
The book fair has witnessed very strong participation from the general public.
Due to Covid-19 restrictions, visitors are allowed only up to 30% capacity of the venue.
However, large number of people had lined up at different booths to buy books as well as to have a glance of the latest books on display.


A set of paintings


"Different types of artworks are on display at our booths. The paintings include acrylate, oil colour, charcoal, pencil drawingamong others. We hope to add calligraphy works too in future. All these are works by Qatari artists as well as by some other artists who are born in Qatar,” said al-Maadeed.
The paintings displayed at the fair are also for sale and the prices start from QR300.
“The paintings at our booths are for sale and about 10 paintings are sold daily. Many of these paintings are also given as a gift to friends and relatives and it has become a culture,” noted al-Maadeed.
A Qatari artist, Dana al-Safar, engaged in live painting at the booth said she tries to finish as many as possible."So far I have finished a few paintings. I also conduct painting workshops and I have a large number of followers on my Instagram account,” added al-Safar.
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