This article is sponsored by Galerie Cheriff Tabet

“I’m interested in life and happiness. I don’t like pain. I want to spread joy with my paintings.

It’s pretty straightforward: when life gets tough, when we have a problem, the question we need to ask ourselves is how can we solve it? If we can find a solution, then why worry? And if we cannot find a solution, then why worry too?

Staying alive is a blessing.

I often think about my life during the war: how me and my relatives narrowly escaped bombs, death. How the family I never met died during the Armenian genocide. How some of my friends never grew old enough to reach 50. I ask myself: why are they dead when I am still alive at age 70? All this makes me truly aware that life is a gift.

This is why my favorite subject to paint is couples: they represent reproduction, continuity, life! So as long as I am alive, I want to create, spread love and colours with my paintings.”

Missak Terzian, 70, will showcase his exhibition “Informal Paintings” at Galerie Cheriff Tabet, Burj Hammoud. Opening night is on Tuesday March 19, from 6 to 10 pm. The artist graduated from London College of Printing and Guvder Art School.