Studio · 17 May 2023
The Power of Abstract Art
How Rima Chahine uses abstract painting to explore emotion and connect with people, and why she believes the right painting can lift a room and a life.
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- Studio
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- 17 May 2023
For Rima Chahine, abstract painting is not decoration. It is how she works through what she feels, and how she reaches other people. Her canvases, in acrylic, are built from bold brushstrokes and saturated colour that can move from joy and calm to turmoil and back within a single surface.
Why abstract
An abstract painting leaves room for the person looking at it. Without a figure or a scene to read, you meet it with your own feelings, and it can mean something different on a different day. That openness is what Rima values: the painting starts a conversation instead of finishing one.
Colour as feeling
Rima reads colour emotionally and uses it deliberately: warm yellows and oranges for happiness, red for passion, green for stillness, blue for healing. Layer by layer, a painting holds several of these at once, the way a real day does. The seasonal, autumn palette of Montreal, where she grew up, is never far away.
“I am good at understanding the psychology of people, and it is reflected in my art.”
The right painting for the right person
Studies in communication and journalism, and years in PR and events, gave her a close interest in people, and it shows in how she places her work. “Each painting has a message, a name and an interior,” she says, and she enjoys helping a collector find the one that fits their character and their space.
Living with art
Living with art, for her, is part of living well. A painting chosen for the right reasons changes the feel of a room, and of the days spent in it. “I believe in the positive and doing things that uplift you,” she says.
In this story
More of the paintings
The exhibition
