About

I feel grateful and honored to be a lifetime image-maker.  My intense use of colors and calligraphic movements and textures make my paintings recognizable.   After years of painting watercolor landscapes, during a discussion with an art historian friend in 2012, I became especially intrigued to paint abstract landscapes, which liberated me to paint my feelings and not my thinking.

I found it exciting that a wonderful abstract painting is unique in its ability to pull the viewer in, effortlessly.  The connection can be a feeling of warmth, or joy, or love, or simply a nostalgia.  It is that sense of a unique and personal connection to the abstract painting that fuels my desire to bring forth the 'essence' or the 'feelings' of a landscape on to a canvas.  

I derive my inspiration primarily from landscapes and seascapes.  Regardless of anything that can happen in one's life, there is always the possibility of going back to nature.  Traveling often with my family,  I am usually immersed in fresh content.  However,  the mundane daily can similarly provide a compelling source of inspiration.  

My process begins from the intuitive experience of a new place.  I often take a quick photo when I connect it.   Once in the studio, I then translate that encounter by literally painting my raw individual perception.  I may or may not need to glance back at my photo to refresh my connection with the image.  I use colors, textures, and movements to define my feelings of the place.  My background in sculpture not only helps me execute the three dimensional aspect of the painting, but also helps me to engage a dynamic texture.  Additionally I often use calligraphic lines and gestures, which I learned in early years as a daughter of a prominent calligrapher in Iran.   

As a blessed mother of three young boys, a wife, and a woman with a particular commitment to aesthetics, I firsthand can see the connection of a 'beautiful' or 'harmonious' image and the adaptation of mind to recreate that sense of balance in our daily lives.  Our surroundings can have a deep impact on how we function.   Just as a chaotic room can create a chaotic mind, a beautiful painting can create a "beautiful" mood.  Just as we can benefit from listening to a harmonious musical composition, being exposed to harmonious colors, textures and forms can have a wonderful impact on our daily lives. 

As a collector of art  myself, I'm often inspired to produce timeless and collectible pieces of art that would live through generations and hopefully connect the viewer to a wonderful part of self.  

My commitment is to remain immersed in art -- continually grow, expand and reinvent painting abstract landscapes or figures.   I look forward to a journey of experiencing, understanding and re-interpreting our immense gift of Mother Nature. 

I work in New York out of my studio in Glen Head, Long Island.

Please contact me at AlalehOstad@gmail.com for inquiries.