Jordanian painter explores ‘hidden colours’ of world

AMMAN — “Painting is the translation of one’s thoughts onto a canvas,” Jordanian artist Leena Baker said, adding that each painting sends a message to its viewers that tackles an emotional state, a real life incident, or even a hand gesture.

Baker, who initially obtained her bachelor’s degree in computer science, decided to follow her passion and put her thoughts and emotions onto canvases.

Her career path began to “make sense” when she started taking courses at the Ministry of Culture’s Centre of Fine Arts in 2014, she explained.

The artist, who prefers to include human figures in her works, tries to convey her current emotional state by adding hand gestures and some body language signals. 

Discussing the range of colours which are often imperceptible to the human eye, Baker said: “There isn’t a colour that is purely white or purely black. In reality, the colour is white with a shade of yellow or any other colour. There are many colours that we don’t see. Just like many things in life.”

Her paintings are a combination of light and dark colours, with thick and thin lines, shadows and highlights of several shades that balance out the portraits, she explained.

“The tree is not only green, it is yellow, purple, blue, but we don’t focus on the hidden colours. After I started painting, I started seeing all the hidden colours that make the final result,” she told The Jordan Times recently.

To Baker, painting is not a one-sided process. It is the reaction of the colours on the canvas with the painter and his or her emotional state during the process, she said. 

“The most beautiful and interesting combination is mixing the cold colours with the strong ones, to balance between them. Balance is not only important in art; balance is important in life and real decisions we have to take,” Baker explained.

“As an artist myself, I think artists should not be ‘extremists’ in colours. I prefer mixing colours and testing the painting’s element before I see the final result,” she added.

Including human figures, she said, is not as easy as it looks; it takes time to take measurements of the parts of the human body and paint them in a cohesive manner on the canvas. But, with practice, she said, the artist paints solid figures that hold meanings.

 “One should always follow their passion and not get discouraged by society’s setbacks. Regardless of what they think, do what you love and believe in yourself,” she urged.