Painting was born with me

Art Gallery

An online exhibition of Atit Maria’s paintings.

Painting by Atit Maria
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I paint and sculpt, but while sculpture is a gift acquired at an older age, painting was born with me – just as one is born with curly hair or blue eyes, I was born drawing. I can’t remember a time in my life when I wasn’t holding a pencil or my mum’s lipstick, making shapes on walls, tables, mirrors, and sheets.

Drawing, colours, have always been the most natural means of expression for me, my outlet, my way to feel free from everything and everyone. It gave me wings to fly high and see the world from above for what it really is: wonderful. At school I was trouble; I was bored out of my mind… and so I drew caricatures of my classmates and teachers.

As a teenager I spent my nights painting sad clowns, an expression of my unease with the world around me.

When in 1980 I reached the commune in Pune, a new world opened up before me, and I no longer felt alone. So many crazy people like me were just happily dancing, creating and celebrating and, paradoxically, the desire to paint vanished completely for a good 10 years.

I immersed myself into Osho’s world, rejoicing in his presence and teachings, working in the communes and experimenting with myriad meditations. There was no longer the need to search for consolation in art, to find a refuge for self-satisfaction… It was enough to just close my eyes and something deep inside would find peace…

I returned to painting purely for the pleasure of sharing; and my paintings I then let go to friends, acquaintances or anyone who falls in love with them.

Most of the paintings shown here are simply expressions of the moment. The abstract ones show a chaotic but harmonious world – my world – in which many different colours can sit well together without quarrelling, the same way different plants can coexist, creating magic in a garden. Here my abstracts are an example of how beauty and harmony can be born out of chaos.

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Other figurative paintings express situations where words are not enough or not needed, like the one of the little girl jumping into the void in an enchanted garden. The painting of the little girl holding the balloon, on the other hand, is dedicated to a dear friend of mine, who has suddenly passed away, and whom I imagine flying away with the wind and with her poem. Another little one flies under the rain with an umbrella. This painting was the fruit of long rainy winter days; it’s entitled: Ma piove, piove sul nostro amor (But it rains and rains upon our love) as the famous song by Modugno, Ciao ciao Bambina, goes…

Then there are paintings dedicated to those flowers that have earned the right to be represented because of their joy of life: hibiscus, dahlias, zinnias, roses.

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With other paintings I wanted to make the viewer feel the wind that so often confuses me.

Sometimes I would also want to depict the beauty of silence or inner emptiness – but then I stop and close my eyes….

With Gratitude…

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Atit Maria

Atit Maria is a sculptor, painter and trained hypnotherapist who lives on Ustica near Palermo in Sicily, together with her partner, Dr. Azima.

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