Some people are born artists or painters.
I am not one of them; when I was growing up, I would never think I would become a painter or an artist.
When I was small girl, we had a dear neighbor downstairs: Ferhunde Boylu; who was a very sweet elderly lady and had taken art lessons from a famous Turkish painter back when she was young. She was always painting in her spare times and during our (my) after school chit chats.
She was an amateur painter, she painted for herself, and I really really liked her paintings, and above that I loved watching her paint.
I had never thought about painting during those years, and I always thought I was no good in painting
The 2 following paintings are from dear Ferhunde Boylu, early 1980ies.
Here is one of my early paintings (years after I lost the beautiful soul)
I finished high school, I graduated from the medical faculty, and finished my residency in neurology; became a neurologist in 1997. After becoming a neurologist I worked at various private hospitals working from 9 to 6 everyday, including Saturdays.
My Daughter Defne was born in 2001 bringing warmth and joy to my hamster life.
Sometimes working with out a summer break, I kept working and working.
Then one day in 2011, I was working in my office at one of the private hospitals, the director came and told me that I was fired! I was actually very very unhappy there, but I couldn’t believe that anybody could fire me. Me? Fired?
How could this even happen to me I couldn’t even fathom.
At first I went directly into a deep deep depression. Then the fury came. I was so so angry with everything that I decided that I did not want to be a doctor anymore and I would be anything else.
After I calmed down a bit I started going to a writing class/course, which we were writing short stories. It was OK but it really didn’t like ‘Oh my god this is what I will do it from the rest of my life type of thing’; it was not that.
Then one day one of my close friends said that she was taking courses from a retired painter and she said why don’t you try it and come with me one day. I was reluctant at first, but then I thougt what is there to lose?
Ahmet Güllü was a retired painter, spending time with us and trying to get the best out of his last days. He wanted me to draw a Turkish type tea glass. He looks at the drawing and says you can do this, you should try painting. I am sure the drawing was awful but the way he valued me and my wishes were priceless, it meant so much to me in those bleak days.
And that was the beginning of my painting career. Actually, I didn’t just start painting; I acted like I was an art school student. I devoted my first year to drawing with pencil and charcoal.
I started painting little by little at the end of my first year. Ahmet Güllü showing me to do this or to do that or do not this way etc. I think these were the best years of my life because of him. I am so grateful to have met him, and then that he mentored me while I was taking baby steps.
While I was painting with my mentor I decided I would paint abstracts from pathological specimens.
These are 2 of my early paintings under Ahmet Güllü’s mentorship.
And here are 2 paintings from me resembling my beloved mentors painting
First his painting
Then my paintings:
While I was working with Ahmet Güllü, I wanted to try some different things (as if had been working with him for 20 years :)) (hello, ADHD)
I started painting with Vedat Örs, he suggested that I paint with acrylics not oils. So my acrylic era began.
A painting from my second mentor Vedat Örs
And my painting shadowing it:
This is a picture with my two mentors
While continuing to paint with Vedat Ors I got an offer from a hospital; the doctor sleeping within me woke up and I accepted the offer and again (because the way I am) I started going round the hamster wheel again. But with a difference; I continued painting.
During those years I got an offer from a mixed exhibition in one of the Turkish galleries in Paris.
While I was in Paris, I went to lots of museums and exhibitions and saw lots of paintings, and I realized that the oil paintings were much richer and they were they were conveying the emotions/meanings better so to say. The oil paintings had multiple dimensions, looked rich and full. So after that period I switched to oils again and now I am mainly painting with oils but then once in a while (as you know Oils take a long time to dry) when I want to do a quick painting or if I want to see the results just right away I use my acrylics.
In the days following my 7th exhibition the ADHD in me started fidgeting again. Rüştü Sungur (a friend and an art dealer) said I had start working with mentor, otherwise my paintings would stall. So I started taking drawing lessons from Resul Aytemür. I was drawing at the atelier and painting at home during that time.
Me and Resul Aytemür in the atelier, all smiles
And this a painting influenced by him:
Then the pandemic started. Everything changed. I still do paint but I got lazier. I got subacute thyroidits after my 4 th COVID, and the steroids they gave me caused depression (again). Which I am still trying to catch my breath under the black waters.
September 2023, Istanbul
Apart from being a painter and neurologist, I also write books on nutrition in neurology and histamine intolerance. You can find further information on my website.
EXHIBITIONS
- 2021 Against the virus Online exhibition, www.lebriz.com (group exhibition)
- 2020 Online Atelier exhibition, www.lebriz.com
- 2019 IX Istanbul, Turkiye
- 2018 Theta Istanbul, Turkiye
- 2018 Vinci a venir Paris, France (group exhibition)
- 2017 Online Atelier exhibition, www.lebriz.com
- 2016 exposé Istanbul, Turkiye
- 2016 Laetitia Istanbul, Turkiye
- 2015 Online Atelier exhibition, www.lebriz.com
- 2014 Ego Istanbul, Turkiye
- 2013 Asab Ankara, Turkiye
- 2013 Anomia Istanbul,Turkiye