« BACK

 

SAMIR SAMMOUN — Layers of paint give a natural texture to the canvas. The artist’s technique, successive voluntary strokes, generates a certain relief and variation in the shades. The overall effect can be seen, for example, in Samir’s Appletrees in Blossom. The sky, shining in slight contrast, meets flowers that almost vibrate through the artist’s use of iridescence.

A landscape artist, Samir Sammoun has a vast repertoire of pictorial themes, e.g. willows, apple trees in bloom, wheat fields, olive trees, villages, storms, churchyards and streetscapes. His paintings reflect a tranquil happy mood. This is the art of a man who loves life. As the artist puts it, “I try to make the person looking at my painting feel the colour of the sky, the temperature of the air, and the breeze in the apple trees or the wheat stalks.”

Samir Sammoun’s art should be viewed from a distance of a few feet. At first glance, his paintings seem blurred. Only when the viewer is at the right distance does the depth of the relief and scene appear in three dimensions.

Samir Sammoun almost never uses classical perspective. His initial sketch resembles a few blotches that out- line shadows and basic reference points in the scene that he has already turned over many times in his mind. The work is then carried out in the ‘automatiste’ style that relies on the number of strokes previously applied. The final result comes only at the end when the layers of light are placed in the appropriate places according to the texture generated.

Samir Sammoun’s subtle touch appears in his ‘wheat fields’ series. Here the rhythmic gesture of the artist combines grace and spontaneity. The delicate touches highlight the slender stalks and the tufts heavy with grain. The artist knows instinctively where the impact should be in the painting. “At times, it is the canvas that seems to evolve on its own. It is through this process that I feel I am playing with the fate of my renderings on the canvas. And it is from this inspiration that I feel I am the one to harness the fate of what is to follow.”

Samir Sammoun’s originality and unique style have caught the attention of viewers, collectors and art lovers in Canada and the United States. When he first showed his work at ArtExpo in New York in 1996, the reaction was immediate and positive. Robert L. Mooney, Director of the Galleries J.R. Mooney, San Antonio, Texas wrote the following: “J.R. Mooney Galleries of Fine Art has had the pleasure of representing the artwork of Samir Sammoun to our collectors in the southwestern U.S. for the last two years. The fresh colorful impressionistic renditions presented in his artwork have been received with unprecedented enthusiasm... Samir is a fresh and exciting talent depicting the landscapes he sees in rich colours with his own wonderfully unique impressionistic style."