Iranian lady holds painting expo at 86

An 86-year-old Iranian lady has started an exhibition to showcase her paintings in the capital city of Tehran.

Starting painting just two years ago at the age of 84, Rafat Sarraf is displaying her works at an exhibition titled ‘Suddenly at 84’.

She unexpectedly started to admire the marvelous world of colors and became lovesick with painting two years ago.

The expo is being held at Tehran’s Golestan Art Gallery. The gallery is showcasing 36 paintings by Rafat, done on 32*42cm papers.

However, she could not personally attend the expo due to the old age and the difficulties associated with senescence.

Sarraf’s daughter, Ameneh, who is a graphic designer explained how her mother started painting and said “There is a charity house near where we live, in which handicapped children are taken care of. I used to teach painting to the kids.”

“This was simultaneous with the decline of my mothers’ physical and mental health condition. She had developed allergy and had to scratch herself constantly. I bought her a number of painting tools, such as pen and paper, to entertain her,” she added.

Ameneh also told her stories of the handicapped kids and talked to her about the impacts they had. She told her mother to paint whatever she liked. Then Rafat asked her to draw sketches for her so that she could paint them.

At the beginning, she had to draw quick sketches to enable her mother to get better after her allergic reaction and stop scratching herself.

After a short period of time, Rafat could draw her own forms by altering the ones done by Ameneh.

“She asked me to train her how to paint light and shadow. Every time that I saw her works, I was astonished at their quality and marveled how she could create them,” the daughter said.

Ameneh praised her mother for developing her style, over the past two years while she has been struggling with her disease, based on her own passion for life.

ifilm takes you on a virtual tour of ‘Suddenly at 84’.

MG/MMF