Sadia
M.A.
Sadia is a professional artist who began her artistic journey as a teen. Inspired by the natural world she went onto become a self-taught painter. From a young age she developed a passion for watercolour alongside oils, and later, egg tempera. Sadia brings over 18 years of experience as a dedicated professional teacher and is open to new teaching opportunities.
Artist’s Biography
Sadia’s love of working en plein air in the wonderful heights of Tuscany where she spent two gap years paved the way to her apprenticing there in an Art studio in her early twenties.
In those two years she soaked up the arts and culture of the country and worked closely alongside other painters learning and building her own practice. In her second year she was fortunate to be given the opportunity to become an artist in residence at a professional dance school in Livorno where she learnt figurative art working with live models. Her practice took many turns over the years and became enriched by the continuing theme of the natural world.
This then lead her onto joining a Master’s program in 2005 at The Kings Foundation School of Traditional Arts in London where she graduated and decided to go into teaching. She has 18 years’ experience working as an art teacher, 6 years working in an international private boarding school in the heart of Hampshire teaching students AS and A-Level art and twelve years working in care homes in and around London.
Teaching
Summer Exhibition, Residential Care Home, Richmond
Sadia now specialises in working in residential care homes with the elderly catering to those with Alzheimer’s, Dementia and disabilities. Her passion for teaching and working with the elderly brings such great rewards, to witness resident’s faces when they sit to paint and feel their creativity coming forth is deeply rewarding.
The works of art produced act as a reminder that a little piece of beauty can come into their lives and be expressed for them and them alone. The classes allow residents to embrace their feelings and emotions. Some residents have mobility issues and severe Parkinson’s where often a tremor to the hand is prevalent when they paint. It’s astounding the developments made by the residents over the course of a few weeks and months. They truly demonstrate how much they enjoy being engaged with Art and how therapeutic is it for them.
Sadia now divides her time between teaching and her own practice.
Classes start at £40 per hour. Bespoke workshops welcomed for groups and individuals. Please get in touch.
Portfolio of residents’ work
Residential Care Home, London, Richmond
Portfolio of residents’ work
Residential Care Home, London, Highgate
Sadia’s portfolio
Watercolours
Sadia has always admired the way one can work with watercolours. The way in which the medium lends itself to versatility and fluidity. She loves the way one can create an impression on the page and capture an instant mood. She especially likes en plein air works and feeling the elements when she’s out painting in nature. Her more imaginary works lend themselves to a more spiritual contemplation.
Livorno, Italy
Totness, England
Enfield, England
Avignon, France
Hampshire, England
Hyde Park, England
Putney Bridge, England
Pilgrimage
Flow
Toulouse, France
Hampstead Heath, England
Hampstead Heath, England
Lancaster Gate, England
Solitude
Orchid
In Nature
A Homage to Blake
Athens, Greece
Hyde Park, England
Tufnell Park Church, England
Sadia appreciates working with the viscosity of this medium. The following landscapes are all from memory and her imagination.
Oils
Hampstead Heath
Hampshire, England
Barcelona, Spain
A Homage to Turner
Hope
The Dawn
A Summer’s Evening
Egg Tempera
Sadia enjoys working in Egg Tempera on gesso in a traditional manner. These Icons were inspired by her appreciation of Iconography and the Byzantine period with a modern flare. Using 24Karat gold leaf and natural pigments.
John the Baptist
Christ Pantocrator
Coffee Tables
The creation of these tables were at the heart of her M.A. She wished to pay homage to her Islamic heritage and what better way than by through art. She hand crafted each table top in three different styles.
Islimi. Parquetry and Zellige.
The Zellige Table: ceramic tiles and wrought iron
The Zellige Table: ceramic tiles and wrought iron
The Parquetry Table: wood veneer
The Parquetry Table: wood veneer
The Islimi Table: hand painted, on gesso, with natural pigments
The Islimi Table: hand painted, on gesso, with natural pigments
Exhibitions
“The Insomnia Series”
A current exhibition of oil paintings being held at Marty’s Yard, London. Sadia has suffered insomnia for over 30 years. The paintings are auto biographical and convey and display the nightly struggles of an insomniac. Each painting is titled and adjoined to a text which the artist thoughtfully created to help explain what it feels like to endure reoccurring sleeplessness night after night.
The images display the vulnerability in the dead of the night of discomfort and suffering, with some glimmer of hope. In their own right they reach out to fellow insomniacs and are influenced by the likes of Rothko, Matisse, Bonnard and William Blake.
The Insomnia Series 1 'HIDDEN' Oil on Canvas. The vast night stretches out endlessly before me. The only comfort lies in wakefulness. There is no hope of escaping this treacherous, merciless night. I must come to terms with its ominous, forbidding guise, like a master of deceit. I cannot let go or be reconciled. This night, like so many others, has me defeated.
The Insomnia Series 2 'FETUS' Oil on canvas Feeling so small. Ablaze the blazing purgatory waves engulf me, but I lie calmly in wait. The icy cool rapturous cradle keeps me sane. Fire and ice. The tug and pull of my memory as I try to recall the summit of my past. I am before you on this condemned journey. I am before you where all will be revealed. I and before you for an eternity.
The Insomnia Series 3 'SURRENDER' Oil on canvas. Suspended in the timeless ocean. Adrift in the waters wide I lie afloat. Cast aside in vast shores I lie in wait for my fate, sleeplessness is but a mere shadow of the early hours where time stands still. Here time is suspended. Here I lie in wait. Here the waters surround me. There is nowhere to go but to lie in wait.
The Insomnia Series 4 'THE PLIGHT' Oil on canvas. I lie prostrate before the dark and restless night. Again there is no hope no light and much remorse. Confusion and fear ripples through my veins as I desperately fall in and out of slumber. Oh save me please from this torturous night one of so many whose grip I must obey.
The Insomnia Series 5 'THE DAWN' Oil on canvas. My mind is alike a pebble in the dawn. Thoughts are hazy and repetitive. I sit reverentially awaiting a passing thought only to receive an unending array of hopeless noise. I wish to sleep but it is too late. The dawn has appeared and so has my misery.
“The Insomnia Series”
Marty’s Yard
London
Current exhibition
Residences’ Exhibition 2025
Residential Care Home
London, Richmond
Past exhibition
Residences’ Exhibition 2024
Residential Care Home
London, Highgate
Past exhibition
Contact
For commissions, exhibitions, or general inquiries, please feel free to get in touch.
Call: 07867845288