Between the drawings of school paintings and the passion for the art education class at school, he finds something that attracts him. He searches for himself in it, between the scattered lines of the pen and those bright colors that bring out what is inside him, to find that passion has moved and begun to increase. Here we talk about the talent that was born with him to be his companion. And the comfort of his eternal life.
Like most artists, he had the beginnings of discovering his talent during his first years of study, but the passion for this talent had a greater impact and had a greater impact, until he continued his studies in the same specialty to graduate with a bachelor’s degree in art education. He was attracted by the art of caricature, so the influence of Ali Al-Kharji and Muhammad Al-Khanifar was great on Obaid Al-Barrak. Since childhood, through those creative drawings and his attempt to convey and emulate them, dealing with topics of daily life, dealing with realistic problems through them, and touching them with what he lives, made him turn to that and harness his artistic talent to drawing caricatures.
He says about his beginnings in caricature: (My father, may God have mercy on him, would bring Al-Jazeera and Al-Riyadh newspapers to the house and I would wait for him until he finished reading them, so I would pick them up after that and follow the drawings of the pioneers of caricature art in the Kingdom, the artist Ali Al-Kharji and the artist Muhammad Al-Khanifar, and try to transfer them and emulate them. That was when I was in fifth grade, and he continued. This was with me in middle school until I started creating my own characters at the beginning of secondary school, and in university I began to become a professional, as I announced a competition for the art of caricature, and I participated in it and won first place. This competition was a turning point in my artistic life, as I was then appointed as a cartoonist in a newspaper. The college’s thesis, which was published in (18) teachers’ colleges at that time, and I continued on the art of caricature until I held my first exhibition of caricature art in Al-Kharj Governorate in 2005 AD, and I continued through the exhibitions of the Janadriyah Festival and the implementation of many workshops).
After (15) years of caricature, in one of the workshops, he took a canvas and acrylic colors out of curiosity to begin drawing a plastic painting in the presence of a number of plastic artists. While he was drawing this painting, the plastic artist Saad Al-Mulhim said to him: (You are an artist inside you... try to reveal it) This word had a great impact on Obaid Al-Barrak, so he repeated the attempt several times until he found himself producing a painting in his own style and in a way different from other artists. At this moment, he found the hidden artist within him to come out in public and announce the beginning of Obaid Al-Barrak’s plastic stage.
Obaid Al-Barrak was able to find a style of his own with a distinctive fingerprint and identity that varied between abstraction and influence, to produce works that bear his personality and distinguish him from others, so that the recipient knows by looking at them that they are Obaid Al-Barrak’s works.
Obaid Al-Barrak mentions that the interaction and joint workshops gave him a lot of experience, and the generosity and generosity of his plasticine colleagues made him learn more in a shorter time so that he could join their procession and be among them in a short period, due to his possession of talent, artistic foundations, and his practice of the art of caricature, which gave him great experience in drawing, proportions, and details.
He researched a lot about fine art and its schools, learned a lot, and learned about local and international fine arts, which contributed to the development of his work and artistic style.
Al-Barrak’s paintings are characterized by their calm, soothing colors, in which we often find the prominence of the blue color and its gradations and the calm yellow color in them. This gives an impression of the calmness that he enjoys, as Al-Barrak painted women, heritage, the sea, and other topics that touch his thought and feeling as an artist, and through them he produced many distinguished works that have spread. In many important group exhibitions inside and outside the Kingdom, perhaps the participation of one of his works in the Davos Conference in Switzerland is one of the important participations in his artistic history.
Obaid bin Sulaiman Al-Barrak is a Saudi visual artist who holds a bachelor’s degree in art education from Teachers College in Riyadh. He works as an educational supervisor and head of the Art Education Division in Al-Kharj Education. He is director of the branch of the Saudi Society for Fine Arts in Al-Kharj. He participated in many group art exhibitions at the Janadriyah Festival. And in the Saudi Society for Fine Arts, the Saudi Arabian Society for Culture and Arts, youth hostels, the Misk Institute of Arts, the Fine Arts Forum exhibitions, and other exhibitions. He also participated in the Al-Kharj Artists Exhibition at Al-Muftaha Palace in Abha. He also participated in the Al-Kharj Artists Exhibition in the Prince Faisal bin Fahd Hall in the year 1430 AH, and he participated in the Creative Visions Exhibition. In Jeddah Governorate, he presented many training courses and artistic workshops. He supervised the joint group exhibition between the artists of the Fine Arts Forum (under the supervision of the late artist Saad Al-Obaid, may God have mercy on him) and the artists of Al-Kharj Governorate, which was held at Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University in Al-Kharj Governorate. He judged many plastic competitions.
His works have been acquired by many entities, including the Misk Art Institute, the Industrial Fund in Riyadh, the Al-Kharj Education Administration, and many private galleries and individual collections.
