While Ronia Ali was blooming in her pregnancy three years ago, so too was her passion for painting.
The 24-year-old self-taught artist readily admits that she discovered her love for art late.
Even though she took art as a subject at The Lodge School from first to third form, she dropped it and continued on a different academic stream.
Today, though, this is the new canvas of her life – one immersed in the arts, where she is sketching, conceptualizing, putting her ideas on paper and then throwing in colours to bring them to life.
That creativity, ironically, grew while her baby was growing inside of her.
“I was in my last trimester and it just hit me. I felt like painting and because I didn’t have those things around, I had to go out and buy an art pad, pencils, paints and crayons,” she told EASY.
Now her son Cailan is soon to turn three this year, Ronia is happy that she keptto the craft.
She boasted that her first complete work of art was a gift to colleague Dr Michelle Bell, who works with her at the Central Veterinary Clinic where she is a veterinary technician.
“She was the first person I gave a finished painting to. If I remember, it was an abstract painting of a pregnant woman, as she was expecting her second baby.”
Ronia, who juggles between a full-time job, a part-time job as hostess and being a student at the PomMarine Hotel in food and beverage management, admitted that even though she loves painting, it didn’t and still doesn’t always come easy, especially translating the ideas on to canvas.
“I would do a sketch and then when I apply the paint, it never would come out the way I saw it.”
Another challenge for her is mixing paint.
“I was using basic primary colours and I realized too that acrylic paint is different from water. When you use acrylic you can cover your mistakes. All this I had to learn.”
What helped Ronia was a book a friend bought her onacrylic paint.
“It taught me how to mix paint, what complements each other and basic information about the colour wheel.”
Ronia is clear on preferred choice ofpaint – acrylic.
But, to put all the pieces together and get it all right for the canvas, Ronia realizes she has to be in a mood to paint and she has to be alone – well, except for the music of the band Florence And The Machines.
“The music is just mellow and it helps to put me in the mood.”
Apart from that, Ronia said she simply can’t have distractions while trying to perfect her art. After all, she added, she is still learning.
She wants to go further and push herself to dabble in other types of art, like portraits, for which she would need formal training.
For now, though, she plans to continue enjoying her passion for creating art, noting “it feels good to know that an idea in your head you can put on to a canvas and show it off to others”.
“I am enjoying this journey in the artistic world,” she said.
A small collection of pieces is next on the cards for this up and coming artist.
