Abdellah El Haitout is an established Moroccan artist. In his early years, Abdallah studied art, philosophy and psychology, which has, no doubt, influenced his creative mind. At first glance his work appears chaotic and incomprehensible, but after spending some time scanning his paintings, we can see past experiences, representation of material objects, and playful movement. In 2017 Abdallah was awarded the prestigious Souad Al-Sabah Biennale Award in Kuwait.
Since when do you paint and what are your favorite motives?
I remember being a kid and painting for hours, maybe painting helped me imagine things and then having them, even as I grew up and became a painter. Painting was the only way I could still be a child... I said one time earlier that I had recovered all that wast from me or had passed me by painting. I love very much the relationship that I had with painting from a young age, because the act of painting became a daily ritual like prayer... The painting was my own world. I can claim that every time I go to painting with the intention of returning to childhood, painting is that travel and that beautiful journey in the fun childhood direction.
When you create a new work, how do you proceed? What comes first?
What comes first? The joy of finding the painting is incomparable. At my studio is a wall on which I hang paintings that I think are finished or about to end. Over time, the longer I sit in front of her, the more I discover what I'm adding or deleting, the better I see it than to be absent from the painting for a certain time and then return to it; Eventually the more time you give to painting, the more chances you will control and regain it, says Cecily Brown I never stopped doing painting or thinking about it. I don't care who cares, but I listen to my gut. I don't know where all these shapes and fees come from and I don't know why. I'm having good fun, I feel as if I'm hearing what the painting wants, I become dreaming of painting.
From what do you get your motivation?
My work is about childhood, simplicity, accident, & risk in abstract painting (... ) I like my painting to have a spontaneous & thoughtful effect at the same time on raw & fragile things, and the cheerful and gentle spirit of collage and paper . I am prisoner of childhood memories icons, I like the mouvement & the chaos that i see in walls & doors, painting is the only way to remain child. To paint is to go without knowing where you will arriv.
Your life without art would be...
What else I do if I don't paint? I like to sit as something rigid in front of my painting and, occasionally, write down what seems to me worth thinking about in a loud voice... So actually if I don't paint, I paint in my mind. Sometimes I go back to the studio, and I just sit and meditate and do nothing. Look, there's something else I consider important; The painter heals & recovers by painting and by watching the paintings. So, it's a special weather - if I may call it that - when I stretch out, every night, over the bed, i have to watch sixty paintings before I drown in sleep.
What's the best art venue in your city right now?
The places, old places, when everything is art, fences, doors, clothes, dyes, colors, shapes and objects. There's a village on the Atlantic, which dad used to work with and He would take me to, for me the gentle, playful tales of childhood will forever be the tale of walls, doors and mysterious objects arbitrarily dumped on the shore of this quiet little village overlooking the thundering ocean. I like to live in a town overlooking the sea. I'm kind of lumbering and slow to painting. I work on several pieces at the same time, this allows me to stay active in the studio.
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