Letter from our member Maha Zaabri

​

Growing up, my mother taught me to appreciate art from a very young age. If you’ve ever met my mother then you must know all about her uncle Omar Onsi who is, according to her, “the best painter in the whole world”. You would be hard-pressed to convince her otherwise. She would tell us story after story about her many adventures with him hiking through the stunning landscapes of Lebanon. Through his paintings, she showed us how the colors of the leaves changed with the seasons and taught us which flowers were native to Lebanon and which mountains they used to visit to find the most vibrant flowers to paint. She regaled us with stories of Onsi’s time in Paris and how it influenced his admiration of the female form that led to his powerful collection of nudes. She told us that he was such a passionate painter that during times of war when supplies were scarce, he would even paint on both sides of the paper. In fact, my mother still has some of these double-sided sketches.