Sona’s Corner

It was at the turn of the millennium that I met Sona my future wife, in the Shiraz home of her father, Bijan Khan Bahadori Kashkuli Qashqa’i, My father-in-law, who passed away in 2015, was Iran’s famous ‘Painter of the Wind’, whose work was dedicated to the now-lost nomad life of his Qashqa’i people, still inhabiting the mountains and plains of Shiraz Province during his youth. His great oeuvre of water colour paintings and pencil sketches spanned decades and his work was featured in many international exhibitions – it is preserved still in a dedicated museum as well as in the private collections of the rich and wealthy. Readers interested in his creative work and his Qashqa’i people will find a link to PDF file of the book I wrote about him (Qasqha’i Life, 2014) and a link to a documentary about his last days and legacy in the Books section of this website.

This website corner is dedicated to the paintings of his youngest daughter, Sona, who learned to observe the world and create pictures of it beside her father, spending long afternoons while squatting in front of large canvases, scattered out on the cool stones and under the shady trees of sun-filled backyards. After her high-school and ‘Miss Shiraz’ years, she slowly created her own style of painting, preferring oil paint to water colour, fusing old and new techniques. Much of her work from pre-digital days – which started later in Iran than in the West – has been scattered or lost. Much of what she created later she gifted away without giving mind to preserving an image for herself – in her spontaneous generosity and a-commercial purpose she is much like her late father. So, this website corner can only feature a few items of her still-available, recent work. It never crossed Sona’s mind – again a similarity with her father – that the paintings she creates, mostly at a whim or as a favour to some friend, may be valuable in their own right. But I see it differently and, now that at least one of us has a personal website, I dedicate this corner to her work – she has graciously given permission to here feature those paintings still accessible.

People interested in Sona’s work can follow, like and comment it on her Instagram account: sona.bahadori_art