Photography is a hobby that I thoroughly enjoy, and macro photography is a unique world that I love to explore; there seems to be no limit to one’s creativity. When viewing macro photos, I’m always curious about how the shot was created, and wonder whether I could replicate it myself. I remember looking for inspiration in creating something visually captivating and abstract. At one point, I came across soap bubble macro photos and was amazed by the colours and patterns, and how each bubble had a distinctive look. Setting up the equipment I had correctly to create the photo was challenging and required a lot of trial and error. A flash unit was placed from above and helped to illuminate the bubble in soft lighting. A black cloth surrounded the bubble to give the dark background. Once I started getting results that were close to what I aspired to, the process became quite addictive. The mixture to create the bubbles contained washing up liquid, water and glycerine - the glycerine helped to make sure the bubbles lasted longer, but also helped to create the unique colours in each photo. The bubble acts like a prism and causes light to diffract - the colours are caused by the varying thickness of the soap film on the bubble, and how the light waves interfere with each other as they reflect off the two surfaces of the soap film. Viewing the world around us from a different perspective is what makes macro photography mentally stimulating, but also quite relaxing and therapeutic; it is a great way to maintain good mental health. Photography is something that I always look forward to.

I painted this art-piece thinking about nature, heaven and escaping from the realistic world into a magical world. Painting in itself is therapeutic and helps me as a medical student relax and travel into the lands made by my imagination. When my brush touches the canvas, my focus is fully captured by the colours and paints I am about to use. I believe that art is therapeutic for the artist as well as the audience and can also help patients boost their recovery. I have kept a spiritual theme throughout my pieces as it reflects my interests and hobbies, personally. Therefore, this painting was also inspired by religion and my imagination as I wonder for how it would be like to climb up to the heavens.

I have painted a verse from the Holy Quran with the outline of the anatomical heart. This is because reciting the Noble Quran kept me spiritually and emotionally calm through the roughs and toughs of a medical student life. I would ponder upon the verses whenever I was going through a difficult time in this field or life in general and the verses spoke to me to never become disappointed in the mercy of the Lord and to not be sad nor grieve; indeed, with hardship comes ease. I tried to paint the verse in the shape of a human heart because the translation of the verse explains that the heart finds peace when it is connected with The Creator and I have experienced this personally so I was very keen on painting this piece. Translation - “Verily the hearts find rest in the remembrance of Allah!” 13:28 the Quran I have also tried using digital art and it was fun trying to paint ‘praying hands’ because I would struggle with acrylic when it came to the shadows that fall upon the hands. I added the wings because I thought of how the angels write whatever we say and do according to my belief and this idea just came to me while I was painting using the digital palette.

This piece is one of the first portraits I painted. It was an experiment in painting skin and portraying the human expression. I had just completed two years of GCSE art and was embarking upon an entirely different course, one which demanded more experiment, greater innovation. I was moving from landscape to portraiture, having been inspired by the artist Manet, who combined the two, yet focused on the latter-it’s power for expression arguably far greater. I liked that with a self-portrait it would be posible to control my own expression as well as my stance and posture. I learnt about myself when creating the painting, more structurally than emotionally in this instance. There is something more revealing about putting a brush to canvas than taking a selfie and this first discovery of an ability to control facial details, values and depth instilled a deep appreciation of the human form and its potential as an object of my creativity.