Raya Saleh Al Maskari
ريا بنت صالح بن عبدالله المسكري
A visual artist, Graphic designer and a blogger from Sultanate of Oman.
Early life & education
Born in Muscat in late 80's, moved to Turkey in early 90's due to Fathers diplomatic career lived there for five years, having parents who are both interested in arts she was encouraged in getting involved in early age by the artist Mohammed Yashar, moved back to Oman five years later. Then in 2001 she moved to Tunisia along with her family and lived there for five years.
Before completing her academic education she took private art classes with the Tunisian artist Laila Al Ilaqui.
Returned back to Oman in 2005 completed last year of high school, and right after that she took a year gap before attending college, joined The Omani society of fine arts in 2007 , had some workshops with the Iraqi artist Abdulhameed Al Zubaidi.
Joined the scientific college of design in 2007 majored in Graphic design.
Graduated in 2011, Joined Muscat youth summit in 2010.
Art work:
Her art is influenced by manga arts, urban graffiti and modern arts, it varies from humorous cartoons that reflect aspects of her life and society.
(Old couple cartoon - galaxy note 3 sketch guru app)
Acrylic paintings and ink work that are mostly specialized in emotions, movements and faces. Sense of emotion is strongly present in most of her ink work and acrylic paintings.
(Threshold - A4 ink on paper)
(Transformation - 100*80 cm- mixed media on canvas)
Carreer:
Currently working in a governmental sector as a graphic designer, quality management specialist, and involved in E government project along with the ITA.
Blogging experience:
Started her Facebook fan page Rayaalmaskari in 2010, a page that is mostly dedicated to publish her artwork. Started Instagram and twitter account in 2012 however they weren’t properly active until 2013. Most of her tweets are a mixture of arts, daily reflections in thehashtag #rayaarts or #مذكرات_ريا as well as her personal views in international and politics, world and general society events. In 2014 she opened flipboard account to document her work from different platform in one social magazine app.
Opened her blog in 2015 that mostly cover long articles about her arts as well as her experience in art museums and her seek of inspiration.
Participations in arts:
• Muscat Art Festival by the Omani society of fine arts 2010
• Annual youth collective exhibition in Muscat by the Omani society of fine arts 2010
• Calligraphy and alphabetic art collective exhibition in Muscat 2011
• Muscat symposium by the Ministry of tourism 2012
• Art 100 by 100 for breast cancer support organized By Bait Al zubair museum 2014
• Voices from within, Gailani art retreats annual exhibition organized by the artist Ibrahim Gailani 2015