"Women become icons in colorful Nashua
exhibit"
by Nancy Tuttle. THE SUN, Thursday, March 24, 2005
Mark Vatalaro calls them the stained glass women, the brilliantly
colored female images that Marilene Sawaf paints so profusely. Infused
with a distinct almost Byzantine style, they are currently on display
at
his Bilancia Gallery, located at 85 west Pearl st. in Nashua. "I have
her work on exhibit at all times, since she has a unique style that you
very seldom find with local artists. It is influenced by an old world,
Byzantine flavor that is distinctive. You always know it is her work,"
he said. Sawaf newest work is currently on display at the gallery
through the end of April.
Sawaf, who now lives in Nashua, fled the political unrest in her native
Egypt to Italy, where she said she fell in love with stained glass
windows and medieval art. Other influences include Oriental rugs and
flowers. "Her work has a slightly religious feel to it , but it is also
very elegant and peaceful," said Vatalaro.
THE TELEGRAPH. AUGUST 17, 2004
Review by June Lemen."Fell in love at recent art show"
"We wandered through the show until we found the booth she was looking
for. The artist, Marilene Sawaf, had two different styles of art
displayed:abstract, impressionistic landscapes, and paintings that were
like the images in medieval-and Renaissance-illuminated manuscripts,
but
somehow modern and full of creative energy, which she calls "Flower
Ladies." Both Kathleen and I loved all her work, and Kathleen decided
to
buy the landscape she had first noticed. I was struck by the "Flower
Ladies " the first time we walked by, and started looking again while
Kathleen was making her purchase. Yes, I am weak. I succumbed. I had to
have it. I bought the "Flower Lady" painting."
THE TELEGRAPH. MAY18, 2004
"Sawaf's artful journey" by Michaelina Della Fera. "From Egypt
to Italy
to Lebanon to Nashua, artist draws on variety of inspirations."
Marilene Sawaf arrived in the United States by a very circuitous
route. Born in Egypt, her family was forced to flee during a period of
socialist revolution. The Sawaf family moved to Italy and Marilene fell
in love with medieval art and stained glass windows. After another
move, this time to Lebanon, Sawaf lived with her grandmother and became
enamored with all the paintings hanging in her house. "My grandmother
had beautiful paintings of stained -glass windows hanging throughout
the
house," she recalls. Additionally, there was a huge stained glass
window
in the foyer. "I remember it being as big as a church wall and the
light
would flow through it. I used to dream about it all the time."
THE TELEGRAPH,MARCH 3, 2003
Sawaf's first series of women was created in 1981 after moving to New
England. "The ladies "were painted with watercolor or acrylic and
inspired by a luminous stained glass window that used to cover an
entire wall of her grandmother's wall in Egypt.
She later introduced new elements in her paintings such as flowers in
the women's dresses. The women would be dreaming in different settings
made of tiled landscapes and diffused vegetation. The women's hands,
the
intriguing expressions of their faces and the mystery of their
environment create a surrealistic image.
"A product of my past culture, of my present taste for rich colors and
enigmatic effects, my paintings of women are a mysterious reflection of
my most subconscious dreams,"Sawaf said.
THE TELEGRAPH. JUNE 2 , 2002
"Artistic pearls." Review by Ellen Grimm. Telegraph
correspondent
Marilene Sawaf's "Pink Tree" is another take on the pastoral, with its
rush of pink that creates the impression of watching a scene from a
speeding car. The flowering trees and surrounding grass seem caught in
a
paroxysm of wind, energizing an otherwise serene scene.
"EGYPTIAN
QUEENS ON DISPLAY" THE TELEGRAPH
FEBRUARY 24, 2000 by Michael Martinelli There is a bold,
inconclusive statement being
mad about the women in
her artwork. Sawaf like Sakellarios , continues to grab audiences with
their surrealism and ambiguity.
"Their work is very complimentary," says Mary Ann List , library
Director at the Amherst Town Public library. The colors and approach
used in both artists' artwork clearly allows their subjects to be seen,
which at times is undefinable.
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH. MAY 17, 1998
"Illusions from the Mediterranean."
Currently on display at the Image Gallery on the middle floor of the
Nashua Public Library is the colorful work of Marilene Sawaf. The
display includes paintings of women, rich with bright colors and
designs
taken from the Mediterranean. Heavily influenced by her heritage, she
was born in Egypt and raised in Italy and Lebanon, Sawaf tries to
create
an illusion, painting women in rich patterned dresses who make you
wonder who they are and what they are doing. The position of the
women's
hands, the intriguiguing expressions of their faces, the mystery of
their environment, combine to create a surrealistic image.
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH,SEPTEMBER 29,1996.An
Eclectic Mix by Diane Rietman.
Marilene Sawaf's art is a blend of bright colors and designs taken from
the Mediterranean.
Born in Egypt and raised in Italy and Lebanon, she has combined
traditional techniques of the countries where she has lived to create
her style.
Her tall, slim "ladies," as she calls the series of paintings of women,
have the influence of African and Egyptian art, of the Middle East from
the fabric designs and architecture, and of Italian landscapes in the
window scenes that are the background of much of her work.
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THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH . February 5, 1995
By Stacy Milbouer "The title of this year's Nashua Art Association
February show at the Chandler Library is "Color and Energy, " and in
many instances the show lives up to its name. In the case of oil
painter Marilene Sawaf's two entries that is certainly true. Her
"Summer
Colors" and "Summer Garden" are rife with both color and energy. It's
the former that really defines the artist, who uses color as if it were
a subject matter in and of itself. "Summer Colors" shows a farmhouse
from the perspective of the walkway in front of it. It's as if the
viewer were walking by the house in summer on such a bright day that
they must squint his or her eyes leaving the scene rendered in hazy
shapes of color--in this case vivid purple, orange, green and yellow."
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH . April 24,1994 By
Stacy Milbouer "The same could
be said for Marlene's Sawaf's oil painting "When Flowers Bloom," which
took first place in works not under glass.This is probably the best
piece in the show, and of itself constitutes a good reason to visit the
center.
The painting is alive with color that seems to have seeped up from a
flourishing garden and through the canvas. But the artist didn't stop
at
color. The subjects of this piece--the flowers--truly take on a life of
their own. They aren't real flowers but are not totally imagined
either.
The spherical swirls of color are more like a composite of what flowers
look like and what wonder they evoke. In a clever manipulation of
perspective, Sawaf gives the majority of the painting's weight to the
fantastic blooms, while the home they adorn seems to tip over to get
out
of their way".
*THE TELEGRAPH.August 1992.*"The painter
behind the painting". Review by
Judith Bennett. The Telegraph correspondent.
......." Marilene Sawaf was one of these talented imports and bring an
unusual depth of life experience to her profession as an oil
painter. Born in Egypt and raised in Italy for eight years before the
move to Beirut, Sawaf spent five of her 15 year in Lebanon surrounded
by
war. "I was in my twenties at that time and we just couldn't do many of
the things that kids do here," she said. "We absolutely couldn't go out
at night for example. There was not much television and it was
difficult
to have friends around a lot of the time. "We moved a lot and there
were
always different languages to deal with, so I never had the freedom and
friends that my children have now. I had a lot of time to read and to
paint." The daughter of a sculptor and an engineer, Sawaf began to
paint
at age 6, taking art correspondence courses from Paris and studying
painting in her free time. After six years at St Esprit University in
Beirut she graduated with degrees in architecture and interior
design. When Sawaf and her husband settled in Nashua 12 years ago,
however, she took up her paints again and immediately joined the Nashua
Art Association. "I had these college degrees from Lebanon," she
explains," but when we came over here I couldn't do those things at
first because I wasn't an American citizen and I didn't have the right
work permit. So, I started painting in the meantime, and I
haven't stopped
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH . February 1993
By Staci Milbouer. "Sawaf's dreamlike images show a singular
figure of a
woman in the foreground -her body formed by a lush flower. The woman
stares at the vision of the other women in sets of twos or threes,
semingly attached to each other like Siamese twins and triplets. There
is a statement being made her about femininity, womanhood and the world
of dreams which is refreshing in a show that's a little light on
messages."
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH . APRIL 26, 1992
By Staci Milbouer. Marilene Sawaf's oil painting "Friendship,"
is an
intriguing portrait of women.The artist uses tribal- like fiigures
dancing in a sea of tiny circles to make a statement about the long
history of female bonding".
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH . FEBRUARY 16, 1992 By
Cynthia Jones. "Among the oils, the works of Marilena Sawaf is
noted
for her spirited style. She uses loose and easy brush strokes to imbue
"Nashua landscape" with personality. The style is even more pronounced
in her picture "Entering the Garden".
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH . FEBRUARY 10, 1991
By Staci Milbouer.
"Artist Marilene Sawaf and Dana Malcom also chose landscape to express
their point of view. Sawaf's "Martha's Vineyard "has a fresh, relaxed
feeling with its broad strokes and pleasing colors."
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