One of my favorites in textiles are kilims. I have a very modest collection though and this particular piece I have painted several times. I like the draping possibilities it offers as it is relatively lighter then a carpet and colors are immensely rich.
Still life with sunflowers
I got a beautiful vermillion red ginger jar as a present from my sons on my birthday in November. Teamed with Baluch tribal rug and some sunflowers, it found its way in this still life. It is one of the 3 paintings that I managed to finish in December 2016. 
Still Life with lilies and horse
It was an exciting piece to work on using some old and some new pieces from my collection. Perhaps one of the most colorful and detailed piece it posed challenges at various levels, maintaining even color temperatures was one of them.
And a detail for the better sense of color:
Autumn Still Life
It was supposed to be geraniums that I planted in the spring but somehow one pumpkin seed took roots in the bed in our yard. Thanks to abundant rain when we returned from our summer holidays half the yard and most of the fence was covered by it. A steady supply of pumpkins started with start of autumn. They aren’t prize winning orange Halloween perfect Pumpkins but rather small, mottled and pear shaped. The flesh is yellow and sweet.
Here the plant is emerging from an glazed terra cotta planter and fruit is laid out on a silver platter like an offering. Onlookers are three sparrows that looking for their share. The whole setting is placed on an antique (1800s?) Persian Tree of life carpet from Kermanshah. Adding a timeless formality to it.
Here are some details:
Here is another one:
Grapes with parrots
oil on linen
50X40 cm
Last year during our holidays to Borneo we saw this round shaped bowl with lid. It has brass edging along the rim and stylized grape vine pattern. It seemed perfect to team with real varieties of grapes. Parrots are not my only love amongst birds but certainly find a place in my paintings more often.
I always find that a lot of details of tones in rich and subtle colors gets lost in digital translation. I am hoping to replace this image with a better one that is more true to color depth of real painting. But for now this has to do.
African grey with Figs
Oil on canvas
60X50 cm
I picked this large lacquered wooden bowl a few years ago from an antique shop a few years ago and it served as fruit bowl in our kitchen. This was the first time I used it in my painting set up and the rich reds told me that I will paint it again and again.
I tried unripe figs as a child picking them from a small tree at a friend’s house. It left my tongue dry and I swore not to touch them again. It was years later that I had some fresh figs with feta cheese in Sinai (served with fresh bread made of coarse whole wheat flour baked in a clay oven) at the village of St. Catherine that I fell I love with this fruit again, maybe it had to do with the place but I still love the taste and texture.
Roses and Gerberas with Chintz
Oil on linen
60X50 cm
These flowers together made a wonderfully rich bouquet that was asking to be painted when I looked at it. I set it up against a replication of an antique Indian Chintz (1800s?). The background was painted in oil but in a gauche like way. Adding warmth with thin glazes
