Aiyesha Muhanna, an 87-year-old grandmother, is a rare case. She started painting at the age of 83 in 2001 and she said, “I loved art when I was young but I never got the chance to draw or paint pictures. I was only able to start doing so when I was already an old woman. In the past two years, I have drawn 300 pictures related to our Arabian culture and heritage. I have participated in many art exhibitions in Syria and in other Arab and non-Arab countries. I participated in an art exhibition in Aleppo and I painted pictures outdoors. During the exhibition, I finished 15. I was so happy that I drew and painted for 12 hours a day.”
She added, “Critics tell me that my art represents a new school that expresses the life of the Arab people and their history. They told me that although I have not studied art, there is nothing wrong with my paintings and they are all expressive. The manager of the French Cultural Center in Damascus said that my art speaks about the Arab East. He said that many Arab artists who studied in the West tried to produce western ideas in their paintings but that my paintings are original and are much more Arab than theirs. Some of the western media have described me as a rare case since it is seldom that someone of my age starts something new and succeeds.”