Mixed Paintings & Photography

Amreen primarily has a background in photography and graphic design; as far as art training goes, she never took a class but somehow weaseled her way into the art clubs and field trips. Now she is taking her photographs of dead leaves and incorporating them into acrylic paintings to produce glass-framed, as well as wood plaque wall decorations and magnets. Amreen’s work includes collages of carefully coordinated leaves from her vast database of photos, one to three leaf pieces focusing on the background painting and one to two leaf magnets.

The dead leaves mostly come from Amreen’s plant room, called Pratus Room, at home where she maintains over one hundred plants. Each leaf, as they are dying or are dead, will go through a photo shoot in different natural lightings and positions until the perfect shot is databased for print. Then the leaves are cut out from the prints and decoupaged onto the painted backgrounds. The piece is then sealed with decoupage and finally framed or glazed.

When it is the growing season for plants and not many dead leaves are yielded (good for plants, bad for art), Amreen creates pieces with photographs of fungus and bacteria - also grown at home.

Amreen is currently moving on into larger plaque paintings that may or may not include photographic images of fungus, bacteria or even leaves. Many of the pieces incorporate one of a kind polished stones into the paintings. Some pieces are strictly paintings using mixtures of various types of paint to obtain unique patterns and textures in the final pieces.

All of Amreen's paintings are titled based on what she sees after staring at the final piece for sometimes and extended length of time. She does, however, welcome interpretations of the paintings and is open title ideas. She has gotten much feedback on her pieces; after close observation of Amreen's works, art appreciators and enthusiasts have shared their visions in various pieces which adds dimension to the works and inspires Amreen to continue with her paintings.

Amreen's portfolio now includes her black & white and color photography. Much of her work in the photographic arts focuses on the life of nature. For example, capturing the behavior patterns of foliage during different times of the day and landscapes from around town that give the commonly visited locations a whole new feel and even look. The photographic pieces are printed on various types of photographic paper in the dark room where special attention is applied to each print. Some pieces are digital prints on cotton paper, some are put onto canvas. All prints are matted and framed to compliment the image.