By MOBINA MARANI (nee JAMANI)
My name is Mobina, and I live in Crystal Beach, a lakefront community in Fort Erie, located some 180 kilometres from Toronto, Canada. I was born in Kampala, Uganda, and developed an interest in art at a very early age. After leaving Uganda, I attended an art school in England where I learned to work with many mediums, including paint, metalwork, and ceramic, amongst others.
After marrying Nizar Marani and having two beautiful daughters Zahra and Zaynah, and buying a pharmacy which I owned with my husband for almost 30 years, my artistic endeavours were put on hold.
It was not until almost 40 years later, shortly after the birth of my first granddaughter, Amarah, that I was inspired to pick up a paintbrush again and find time to dedicate to my artistic expressions. Over the ensuing years, I completed portraits of all my immediate family members. Earlier this year, I rendered a painting of Mawlana Hazar Imam from one of his numerous portrait photographs that were taken during the Diamond Jubilee Year in 2017-2018. I hope to continue expressing myself artistically in the years to come, and fulfill an interest that began in my early childhood.
I would like to express my thanks to Simerg for introducing Ismaili artists such as myself to the worldwide Ismaili community and readers of this website.
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Please click on images for enlargements
Portrait Paintings by Mobina Marani
Date posted: May 31, 2022.
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We welcome feedback/letters from our readers. Please use the LEAVE A REPLY box which appears at the bottom of this page or click Leave a comment. Your feedback may be edited for length and brevity, and is subject to moderation. We are unable to acknowledge unpublished letters.
The editor invites Ismaili artists to submit a selection of their paintings and other works of art for publication in Simerg. Please submit images of no more than 8 objects in Jpeg (1200 x 900) along with your profile to the editor Malik, at mmerchant@simerg.com.
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Compendium of Ismaili Artists
By MALIK MERCHANT
Publiser/Editor, Simerg
Some 8 years ago, we produced a beautiful PDF publication entitled “A Compendium of Ismaili Artists from Around the World” that can be downloaded HERE. It contained a short profile and one work of art for each of the 33 different Ismaili artists from around the world who wanted to be featured in the compendium. As much as we wanted to publish an expanded edition of the compendium featuring many more Ismaili artists, we are sorry to note that the response was disappointing despite a major announcement on this platform as well as pertinent social media pages. We are keen to publish an expanded edition of the compendium provided we can, at the least, double up on the original number of 33 artists that were featured in the first edition. There are hundreds of Ismaili artists around the world, judging from their participation during the Golden and Diamond Jubilee celebrations of Mawlana Hazar Imam held in 2007-08 and 2017-18 respectively. We therefore urge Ismaili artists to review the entries in the first edition, and send their details for the compendium accordingly to Malik Merchant at mmerchant@simerg.com. Please do not ask us to prepare your profiles by submitting your elaborate CV or resume or asking us to visit your website to prepare the profile. We need the information from you, based on the format in the compendium; each artist will be allotted one page in the compendium that will include a brief profile and one image. Read the compendium!
Simerg - Insights from Around the World 
Congratulations! Your talent is remarkable. I am honored to have met you and grateful to be a be able to see your gifts as an artist revealed. These are amazing and I hope there are many more to come!!!
Mobina how wonderful; you are so talented and I love the portraits
I loved the paintings. I am Shafique living in London, UK and am proud to be her cousin. Keep up the good work sister and hope to see you soon.
Lots of love.
What an incredible collection of portraits! Your talent and passion is amazing! Congratulations!
Wonderful paintings Mobina! I love the detail in texture areas like fabric and hair. So nice to read your story as well.
Beautiful paintings Mobina!
Mobina Congratulations, Beautiful paintings excellent work. You are really very talented, we are very proud of you. Thank you for sharing.
Awesome work, excellent talent.
These are beautiful. I am very impressed! Great job.
Congratulations on your success in painting! It’s been wonderful seeing you progress with your artwork and challenge yourself, keep up the amazing work!
Fantastic!!
Mobina you outdid yourself!!!
Beautiful, Mobina! I didn’t know you were a painter! I particularly like your second painting of the Aga Khan. It’s very realistic and captures life in the eyes (difficult to do). Remarkable!
Thank you all so much for your kind words.
Your comments were much appreciated
A big thank you to Simerg for showcasing my work.
I always knew that Mobina was talented and accomplished artist by her beautiful flower and plant creations and her portraits show how versatile that talent is. I hope she has photos of her other work that we can see in a future article.
Amazing work of art! Congratulations.
Simerg does not mind negative comments; however the so called “Ismaili murid” has posted the comment under a non-existing email address!!! Kindly submit it with a valid email address.
Mobina, good work and keep it up.
Mobina, such beautiful paintings, you are so talented. Congratulations! Thank you for sharing. Can’t wait to see your next piece of artwork.
Being an artist myself; I have found portraits the most difficult subject. Mobina’s artwork is amazing and to think she has painted pictures of her family. I believe she has not only left us with works of art but a legacy of her own.
Congratulations Mobina.
Your artistic talent shows in your work.
Keep it up.
Mobina , you have an amazing talent. Very impressive. Keep it up.
Fantastic!
Absolutely astounding work of art and love. Mubarak.
Wow Wow!! Mobina you are amazing and so talented. So so proud of you Dear Friend. I see your Nuru masi and my Nuru fui. Looking forward to seeing more of your beautiful work. Keep it up and Congratulations!!❤️
Congratulations Mobina on the beautiful paintings. We are so proud of you.🥰
Wonderful. Congratulations to Mobina. She makes us proud.
Karim Mamdani.
Great work! I particularly like the one of Jordan; it’s adorable. Time to do a self portrait?
Mobina: Beautiful artwork. Congratulations. Keep it up 👍
These are absolutely stunning and the fact that you picked back up after 40 years makes them even more impressive. You are so talented and determined and we are all so proud of you!
Great work, congratulations, Mobina. Keep it up.
Beautiful Work!!! So glad to see you sharing them with the world!!
Dear Mobina,
What an exquisite rendition of portraits! The details are just amazing and you have captured the essence of each individual and the eyes tell it all. Of course Hazar Imam’s portrait defies any comment except your intent to capture the spirituality of the image. Your paintings reflect your own emotions and love for the subject.
Latent talent never dies and you have awakened your inner most desire to put a stamp on the canvas. Congratulations. May you remain blessed!
Thanks to Malik for showcasing Ismaili talent, particularly in the field of arts and culture.
Lots of love and affection!
Amin
Outstanding, Mobina! Congratulations! You work extremely well with acrylic! Mashah’Allah! Super talented! So proud of you, dear friend❤️
Mobina your art is so beautiful and to be able to pick it up again 40 years later is incredible in itself. You are very talented. Can’t wait to see more of your art ❤️
You are very talented Mobina.
Absolutely beautiful paintings.
Beautiful paintings!! You are very talented.
Absolutely beautiful! You are very talented.
Wow! Such a great accomplishment Mobina!
Beautiful portraits!!
Wow Mobina- a beautiful compendumium of art work & a matching background narrative! Talented indeed. Well done & do keep it up!!
My dearest friend Mobina.
WOW! Such talent. Beautiful painting of our beloved Mowlabapa and your family. I am so proud to be your best friend from Kampala.
Fantastic art work. Congratulations and best wishes. Very interesting and beautiful. Best wishes for for future.
Beautiful paintings indeed!
Glad you pursued your passion after all those years.
Keep it up and thanks for sharing!
We need talented artists like Mobina in our community. Keep up the good work.
Mobina, your work is really amazing. You sure are very talented. Keep up the great job.
Zenobia
Spectacular and heart touching.
Exquisite paintings! Mobina, you have a very unique style of painting. Congratulations. You are indeed very talented.
Congrats Mobina! So beautiful; amazing talent keep it up. God bless♥️♥️
So proud of you my baby sister. Your talents continue to amaze us. Keep creating beautiful art! We can’t wait to see more!
Beautiful work! Thank you for sharing your talent.
Ya Ali Madad. Thank you so much for sharing. These are absolutely beautiful. Have a wonderful evening.
Nizar, when I first looked at the paintings of Amarah and Aaran without reading the captions, the first thought that came to my mind was that of the great English classics, Brontë, Austen. Mobina has very interesting style in painting. Beautiful paintings, I must say. I am impressed!
Absolutely amazing! These are all so beautiful. Each picture is worth a thousand words
You are a very talented artist. Our best wishes.
Wow Mobina beautiful paintings!
Where have you been hiding all this talent?
Proud to be your sister.
Mobina:
Wow such beautiful paintings.
You are talented. Keep up the good work.
Allah bless.
Mobina – excellent paintings and near perfect renderings of the individuals in each portrait. You make us so proud!! Look forward to your other projects.
Mobina great artwork. You are one fine artist!
Omg absolutely beautiful! You are so talented. Wow those paintings of your daughters especially look just like them 😍😍😍 amazing !!!! Wow
Excellent work! You’re very talented
Mobina,
You are such a great artist. Congratulations.
You are awesome.
We feel so blessed to have you in our lives.
We are so proud of you.
Sultan and Nasim
Exquisite work Mobina, paintings are beautiful!
Beautiful Paintings.
Keep up the good work.
Amazing talent.
Amazing talent Mobina; So beautiful!
So beautiful and so talented!! Keep shining your light for the world to enjoy ❤️
Very creative and talented – always looking for new projects
Beautiful paintings! What a joyful talent.
WOW! Excellent work, Mobina. I have known you for a long time but I never knew that you were into painting.
Congratulations, these are beautiful paintings. You are indeed talented; keep it up.