Art Majlis x Nujood Alotaibi: Exploring Identity & Emotion Through Watercolor

On Wednesday, September 16, 2026, creatives gathered at Huna Al Takhassusi in Riyadh for Identity and Emotions Through Watercolors, a workshop led by Saudi artist Nujood Alotaibi. The session combined personal storytelling, practical watercolor techniques, and hands-on experimentation, inviting participants to explore memory, emotion, and identity through color.

Exploring Identity Through Watercolor

Nujood Alotaibi began by speaking about her artistic journey and sharing examples of her work. Through the discussion, she introduced participants to the ways personal experiences and emotions can shape an artistic practice, encouraging them to see watercolor as more than a technical medium. The workshop centered on a simple idea: how can a memory or feeling be translated into color and form?

Inside The Workshop

The session then moved into practical demonstrations, where Nujood shared tips for working with water, pigment, blending, layering, and brush movement. Participants learned how small changes in water and pressure could create different effects, while also experimenting with texture and transparency. Rather than aiming for perfect results, the focus was on becoming comfortable with the material and allowing the watercolor to move naturally across the page.

Turning Feelings Into Color

Participants were then invited to create a piece inspired by a memory, emotion, or personal experience. Some worked through specific colors, while others used abstract shapes, soft washes, and layered marks to express their ideas. The exercise gave each participant space to interpret the prompt in their own way, showing how the same medium can produce completely different visual responses.

Nujood Alotaibi Shares Her Practice

By sharing both her work and her experience as an artist, Nujood Alotaibi gave participants a closer look at how an artistic practice can develop through experimentation and personal reflection. Her approach helped connect the technical side of watercolor with the more personal process of building a visual language.

A Space For Creative Exchange

Hosted by Arbaaa, the workshop created a relaxed environment for learning, conversation, and making. Participants painted alongside one another, exchanged ideas, and explored different approaches to the same techniques and prompts. Identity and Emotions Through Watercolors offered an accessible introduction to watercolor while opening a wider conversation around memory, identity, and self-expression.

Artist Profile: Nujood Alotaibi

Nujood Alotaibi is a Saudi artist whose work explores silence, memory, nature, and emotional presence through a highly visual lens shaped by her experience with hearing loss. Working across oil, acrylic, and abstraction, she draws inspiration from the ocean, sunsets, mountains, and moments of stillness. In 2023, she became the first artist-in-residence for McLaren F1’s Driven by Change initiative, where she designed a livery for the team’s Formula 1 cars.

Also Read: An Artist in Dialogue: Nujood Alotaibi

Looking Ahead

As the Kingdom's art scene moves toward a future of professional innovation, the Art Majlis remains dedicated to ensuring that the human element of creativity is never lost.

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