Hayam Elsayed: Capturing emotions through fine art

Relatively new to the world of art an up-and-coming artist Hayam Elsayed has already made a good impression with her signature portrait style. She’s won a regional art prize at ING Discerning Eye Exhibition organised by Mall galleries.

Hayam paints portraits that express strong emotions, drawing facial details that highlight the subject’s intense gaze, revealing feelings of courage, hope, strength and love.

Here is Hayam Elsayed story so far..

Can you tell us your backstory and how you got into the art world?

Fine art has been my passion since I was young. While growing up, I recognised the beauty of art. I was exposed to a lot of different art pieces and styles and I started to get inspired. I learned more, and I saw that art is an expression.. an expression of feelings and emotions. The more I expressed myself through my art, the more I realised how much one’s soul gets touched by a painting. If you look closely, you feel so many emotions running through you.

My inspiration comes from distinct features on a person; their face, the way they laugh, cry, and all reactions that they go through a human’s face. Studying in Florence, it was exciting for me to see all the art around me. I studied every detail – I could feel the painting, the colours, and the strokes of the brush that were clearly seen on the portraits I observed. Looking back at my life, before art, I see how my perspective on art has completely changed. In all aspects of life, inspiration is a seminal tool for creation.

How would you describe your signature style and technique?

I am a portrait artist. For me, a portrait can showcase the emotions expressed in the human features, which has a majestic element to it. Moreover, drawing a portrait makes me feel and understand the portrait as if it’s another soul with me but captured in a painting. In other words, when a painting is finished, it could transfer positive feelings to the viewers. Whilst drawing a portrait I feel intrigued to finish it at fast pace, motivated by the feeling that the soul is revealed through the beauty of the painting.

How do you choose the colour palette for your portraits?

The colours I select for my art pieces are led by the skin tone of the person I’m painting. It may seem easy to determine if the skin tone is dark, medium, or light, but I also consider the undertones of the skin, such as blue or yellow. These are, in general, my starting points.

Are there any exhibitions or events you are planning?

Currently, I am working on my solo show. My current project aims to represent the fleeting beauty of emotions, and how a moment in time becomes a fractured image, or memory which flickers on the edge of your mind. By using light effects, I want to create a series of paintings which represent the shattered memory of a moment in time.

Apart from that I am participating in various group exhibitions in London such as the Art-for-Youth London in Mall Galleries until Sunday 20th November 2022.

What is the best advice you received as an artist?

Paint only what interests you in the way you choose to paint it. Don’t change your approach to gain sales, popularity or acceptance. You will never do your best work if you do. Avoid competitions, contests and measuring yourself by how many shows you’ve gotten into or awards you’ve won. Seek validation internally, you will never please everyone.

Give up comparisons ..you are always going to be better at some things than other people, and worse at other things. Dwelling on either isn’t going to get you anywhere. It can stifle your creativity as an emerging artist to compare yourself to someone who has 20 years of experience in the industry, and it can stunt your growth.

Instead of focusing on how you stack up next to someone else, invest that energy into comparing your recent work with the work you made six months ago, a year ago and five years ago. Have you grown? And where do you want to see yourself six months, a year, and five years in the future?

Only compare yourself to yourself.

Hayam Elsayed details:

Website: hayamelsayed.com

Instagram:hayamelsayedart

READ ANOTHER ARTIST STORY HERE.