Words by Jumana

Walks and quiet contemplation. The gray drops of water hitting white sand on a rainy day and the vibrant orange of a sea hibiscus flower peeking through the gloomy darkness as you take a walk through memory lane. Playing in the dirt under the hot sun dancing through bougainvillea branches of fuchsia and white, chickens playing at your feet and the promise of simplicity. These are just some of the flashes of what the Seeking Simple art exhibition is about.

Shimha’s paintings are as if someone plucked these simple and often overlooked memories from our minds and distilled it down to the pure essence of heart-touchingly beautiful paintings of Maldivian “island life”. We have personally never seen someone take in these works of art and not breathe a deep, relaxing breath. In the age of scrolling and AI generated pieces, @art_by_shimha is able to reach out beyond the screen and invoke that sense of peace.

We at Kaleo have been fortunate enough to catch Aminath Shimha Shakeeb as she prepares for her Seeking Simple solo exhibition- a first for her – and find out the essence of her sensational and renowned paintings. Why is it that so many people are enamored with her work? Turns out it is all Shimha, a patient and creative soul in love with the simple things in life. Her work speaks for itself and is imbued with everything Shimha is.

You will often find her in her very clean and neat studio with the early morning Villingili light streaming through the dark green trees and her windows. A quality cup of coffee, a podcast or an audiobook and Shimha faces the canvas, ready for the magic.

She explained the exhibition, Seeking Simple and said, “It was when I was taking a look at this collection and figuring out the descriptions for over 50 pieces of art that I noticed a pattern. The relationship between what I have been painting and what I truly crave. Male’ is such a busy and hectic place, moving to Villingili helped me truly appreciate those slow, quiet mornings and simplicity- similar to the paintings”.

“I don’t remember a time when I didn’t paint. Truly! I remember even early memories of people complimenting my paintings”, Shimha recalled.”Unfortunately as I got busy with my job, I was unable to paint much. My work was so busy that I needed an outlet so I started art classes around 2017. It was back in 2018 when I used to have an etsy shop where I sold digitized clipart. That was about a year’s work”.

As with many artists, Shimha also got creative during the Covid-19 pandemic. “I thought I would give landscape art a try back then. Earlier, I had even traveled to India to learn at the side of a very well-known and talented artist. The trick I think, is to paint every single day. It was during lockdown that I was able to paint landscapes every single day and see the progress for myself”.

“I have explored acrylic and digital throughout my time painting, but I always kept coming back to watercolor” Shimha noted. Her love for the medium shone through as she explained, “Watercolor has many surprises in store and can be pretty unpredictable as well. Controlling water, and color, there is a lot to consider – especially with landscape art. Painting every day helps”.

Shimha is also an avid believer in being prepared. “It’s always nice to sit down and begin painting because it is the painting process that I really like. But there is also preparation beforehand”. She recalls how cleaning the brushes and workspace, sketching, putting tape on the paper and all aspects of planning that takes place before the actual painting can begin. “I like to take care of all this and ready everything before starting to paint early in the morning so I can start fresh”. She also appreciates that the right audiobook or podcast is conducive to helping bring about what she calls “the flow state”.

It was in fact right around 2020 when simple and whimsical watercolor paintings of island life began popping up on instagram with the hashtag #fenkulainraajje. “It was when I used to travel for work, that I was able to visit a lot of local islands and the work is inspired from that. But during lockdown, I carried on that work by simply searching the geotags on instagram and picking an island. I was hoping to pick an atoll for instance and do a painting for all the islands within the atoll, and then keep doing it throughout Maldives. It caught on and soon people were tagging me in pictures to paint. It was very fun and it’s still an on-going project”.

When asked about her favorite paintings so far, she said with a slight laugh that she isn’t sure of any one particular favorite painting and that appreciates the ones that challenged her the most. “For me, even a very simple art work may be a favorite. It all depends on if the artwork provided a learning experience. I feel happy and satisfied with my art work depending on the effort that went into it”.

For the future, Shimha is gearing up to conduct watercolor art classes for kids and adults. “Even with these relatively shorter art classes, the joy that I get comes from knowing that I have been able to pass on the techniques which will allow you to carry out your own painting and discover your own style as painters. Each student will walk away from these classes knowing the methods that will allow them to put in the time and hone the skills to grow as painters. I see my students picking up these techniques so well and so fast and it makes me proud”.

“It is important to know why you are painting, and to do it for yourself without necessarily seeking other people’s approval. If you know the reason for painting for yourself, then you can keep going”.

~ Shimha ~

What she looks forward to the most with the  Seeking Simple exhibit is being able to meet people that have supported her journey loyally for so long. “I started during lockdown so I haven’t met many of the people that regularly comment, and support the page. I am hoping to be able to meet all those people in real life during the exhibit”.

What Shimha learns from “almost each painting” is what anyone can apply in life as well..”You have to keep going. More often than not, I would think to myself in the midst of painting that this piece doesn’t look that good and that I should start over again. But then once I keep at it and push through and see the final version, it all comes together. So yeah, keep going”.