About Us

Noura Safar Lemnaru – Biography

Noura Safar Lemnaru was born and raised in a creative environment in Saudi Arabia. Initially influenced by her father and his successful writing career, Noura began by expressing herself with words. She wrote poems, essays, and short stories and had her writing published. That gave her the confidence and encouraged her at that early stage to continue writing and develop her skills. She participated in several poetry and writing meetings, lectures and poetry reading nights, and won a provincial youth prize when she was 19 years old. At the same time, she dabbled in various aspects and all kind of arts and was steeped in the work of local artists like Abdulrahman Alsoliman, Maisoon Saker, and Mohamed Bushara. As a child, she had the opportunity to participate in youth galleries set up by children’s magazines, e.g. “Al-Jeel Al-Jadeed/ The New Generation” based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

As all artists know, there comes a time when the decision between following your art dream and having a “normal and stable” career must be made. For Noura, the choice was made for her in the form of becoming a doctor. Enrolling in medical school brought its own set of challenges, eventually halting her writing and visual arts journey. However, while it looked like the art door would forever close, it unexpectedly opened again while chasing medical degrees and furthering her education in Canada.

In Canada, painting became the definition of resilience and refuge in a different country and culture. She could not convey the precise feelings by writing in a foreign language but, with the help of art, she was able to translate her embroidered soul using color, marks, patterns, rhythms, and texture into a connection the observer can almost touch. Furthermore, dealing with cancer patients made her realize that art and science are not separate fields. The summary of art of oncology is to choose the right regimen for the right patient aiming to improve their quality of life. But who has the ability to define “quality” in its most vast and encompassing meanings? Is it living longer? Attending your daughter’s wedding? Or merely teaching one’s partner how to file taxes?! The mundane, joyful, and tiring stories oncologists encounter day in, and day out provided her with a river of emotions and stories. That filled her arsenal of tools to advance the journey with abstract expressionism since she has always seen things in a distorted way.

Using acrylic and collage, painting allowed her to interpret those sensations and experiences. It is powerful to paint the color of a word one could not find, feel the texture of an internal scream, sorrow, or fear, and finally get rid of that nagging itch in your soul by fiddling and spilling paint on a canvas . In her recent work, Noura capture s cities she has visited from various angles. The polished modern venues, historical sites and even the back alleys are represented in different collections, namely, A Nomad Voyager, The Back alleys, and Andalucía. Noura believes that spreading art is spreading love and beauty and that would help rid our world of some of its miseries.