Artist of the month February 2021 – Gaihal

Mohamed Gailhal is a 22-year-old digital artist born in Male’, Maldives. He was introduced to art from an early age when his mother bought him a drawing block and drawing guides. He continued his interest in drawing in school but never took it seriously until recently.

Whenever Gaihal sees anything that interests him, he always thought about a way to bring life to it through his drawings. He loves every bit of his artworks from the beginning to the end. The satisfaction he gets after seeing the final artwork is beyond words.

Gaihal’s traditional form of art speaks depth, and his work with inks are a commendable method of detailed artworks. Gaihal became enthusiastic about digital art lately and emphasized it for Unveiling Visions 2020 because it was the best way to express what he had in his mind. Gaihal can do wonders with digital illustarions. According to him, digital art form takes up less time and cost hence it pushes him further than anything he can do with traditional art form.

When Gaihal began to discover the surrealism art form he didn’t know any art form other than realism. Discovering the works of master surrealists was an eye-opener for him because it seemed like they were painting things that were unfathomable yet familiar, and he was swept away by what can be achieved through this form of art. It made him want to be more like them and has lead him to love and study every form of art and art history. Aside from surrealism, his artworks are heavily influenced by Japanese manga artists, Videogames, Music, and Cinema.

Gaihal firmly believes that digital art can be a good source of income in the Maldives in the form of graphic design and illustrations along with gradually emerging digital studios. With several variants to digital art and the failure of understanding what form a certain artist uses, he believes fine art is a bit underestimated and misunderstood to some extent.  He was beyond delighted and amazed to receive the most vibrant artist of the exhibition award.

Gaihals vision is to be able to make a good income out of art and manage to draw everything that strikes his mind. Gaihal started receiving commission for his artworks recently, and he will be officially creating art for commissions this year.   He also aspires to be able to convey his artworks visually similar to many masters that inspire him. He anticipates having a solo exhibition by the end of this year and has begun with the concepts for it. Mohamed Gaihal has won the “Vibrant Artist” of the year 2020 in Digital art category.