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UAE of the 70s Shown Through Art by Former Expatriate

ABU DHABI - On one page you see a pencil drawing of an Arab man, arriving at his traditional home, where he is greeted by his child and his wife, and, on the opposite page there are a few lines from the poet Abu L’ala Al Ma’arri:

“...I keep the bond of love inviolate

towards all human kind, for I betray

myself, if I am false to any man.”

This is “The Desert knows me well”, an art book by Caroline Bancroft, a British artist, who used to live here during the UAE’s early years.

Similar drawings, 20 of them, accompanied by famous Arabian poetry, depicting the people, the villages, the cityscapes, the sea, the deserts and the wadis of the emirates 30 years ago form the content of the book.

“I lived mostly in Sharjah and Dubai during the 70s and in those days I had little children, so I needed to do something”, Bancroft told Khaleej Times.

She thus started carrying pencil and paper anywhere she went, sketching people’s lives and habitats.

“It was very easy back then. People welcomed me in their home anywhere I went. It was simplicity of life that I really loved”, she remembered.

Beautiful Arabian houses, hardly seen in the Emirates today, camels crossing the desert, children playing on the neighbouring streets, fishermen and their dhows, minarets and palm trees that only a few remember now and most have seen in pictures only are all invaluable images that add to the country’s cultural assets.

For nearly 30 years, though, these drawings remained in Bancroft’s drawers. “When I lived here I used to exhibit a lot, but one day, the paintings of an entire exhibition disappeared on their way from Europe to the Middle East. I lost heart. The book of the Emirati sketches I was already planning was dropped. I stopped drawing and painting altogether”, said Bancroft.

Years went by, she moved back to England in 1981, then to France and one of her children, Tom, now a grown man, returned to the UAE, where he works as an account manager in Abu Dhabi.

“And then, one day, these drawings resurfaced. I gave them to my son, who took them to the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage, who liked them and decided to publish them”, explained Bancroft.

The book, which has just been released by the Authority, is available in bookshops across UAE.

The collection of poetry, in very good English translation, which accompanies every drawing, was selected from the British Museum in London. The original Arabic verses are also printed next to their English translations.

“This book is my way of saying thank you to the UAE and its people, who made me feel so welcome in their country and their homes back in the 70s,” Bancroft said.

silvia@khaleejtimes.com.