Does your home, Morocco and the environment effect your colour choices?

Absolutely, the environment plays a crucial role in my creativity, behaviour, and reflection. My Moroccan culture has had a profound influence on me, particularly through its richness and diversity. I am inspired, by warm colours, light, and the cultural heritage that forms an invaluable local resource.

Untitled, mixed technique on canvas ,size 30cm  on 30 cm, 2018

Do you always use acrylic paint in your work?

I prefer to mix different mediums, seeking interaction and fusion between colours and the materials. I experiment with watercolour combined with oil paint, marble powders, coloured papers, inks, natural dyes, and acrylics. This constant exploration allows me to expand the expressive possibilities of my work.

Untitled, mixed technique on canvas, size 97cm  on 97 cm, 2024

How have you finally settled on painting as your main medium?

My engagement with painting began in my childhood, nurtured by an artistic family whose influence was invaluable. I am constantly drawn to the enigmatic possibilities of painting, exploring techniques, textures, and the interplay between them. Today, my practice into contemporary paradigms, experimenting with other disciplines such as installation, minimal art, video, and photography, seeking new ways to enrich and challenge my visual language.

Painting constitutes to be the principal medium of my practice, I seek to experiment and explore ever new modes of expression.

How small and how large are your paintings?

Untitled, mixed technique on canvas, size 25cm x35 cm x 3, 2018

The dimensions of my canvases vary according to the theme, technique, and composition of each work. In my view, the choice of scale is intrinsically tied to the artistic process itself. I find that working on a small format often proves more demanding than on a large one, as the reduced space limits the freedom of expression. For this reason, I am naturally drawn to large canvases, which offer me a greater sense of creative openness and allow my ideas to unfold more fully.

Untitled, mixed technique on canvas, size 100cm x100 cm, 2024

How do you manage your canvas when you want to ‘dribble’ applied the paint?
This is indeed a very interesting question, as it touches on the role of spontaneity in the expressive process. In my view, painting is a multifaceted and creative discipline through which the artist conveys both vision and emotion. My pictorial approach often lies between abstraction and semi-figuration, requiring me to construct layered compositions of color, transparency, and texture. At times, I allow chance to intervene, bringing greater fluidity, fusion of materials, and harmony among transparent hues.

This process often leads me to work on several canvases at once, since focusing on a single work feels restrictive. By laying my canvases flat on the ground, I can observe, experiment, and contemplate their evolving states. The drips in my paintings remain deliberately uncontrolled, imparting movement and vitality to the surface.

In most of your work you have a very distinct horizontal or vertical line discuss.

The line is one of the most essential elements in my work, as it profoundly contributes to structuring the composition of my paintings. It grants them both aesthetic clarity and a visual balance between reflection and spontaneity. For me, lines embody movement and imbue the work with pictorial strength. Horizontal lines symbolize stability, while vertical lines evoke transcendence and spirituality. They form a plastic language that conveys the freedom of gesture, uniting the instinctive with the reflective.

Untitled, mixed technique on canvas, size 100cm x 100 cm, 2024

How often do you work with an assistant?

I have long worked alone, managing every aspect of my practice independently. This solitude affords me both freedom and calm within the studio, allowing me to be immersed in my creative process. It is in this quiet space that I turn inward, drawing from the depths of my soul to externalize positive emotions—whether through color, form, or the materials and textures chosen for each canvas to generate visual harmony. Solitude offers me comfort, tranquillity, and the silence needed for deep reflection. To be and to work alone strengthens both my concentration and my sense of well-being.

Untitled, mixed technique on canvas, size 90cm x 90 cm, 2024

Discuss three paintings and how each has a definite prominent colour?

Within my pictorial practice, chromatic transparencies prevail, establishing color as the very foundation upon which the visual structure of the work rests. I regard myself as a colourist, deeply fascinated by the infinite subtleties of the chromatic spectrum. My palette is deliberately abundant, for I seek richness, intensity, and resonance in color. In response to your question, I will reflect upon three hues that imbue my canvases with a defining presence.

Blue, to me, embodies serenity of the soul. It conveys tenderness, gentleness, and calm, while at the same time revealing the psychological depth of my inner being.

Untitled, mixed technique on canvas, size 30cm x30cm, 2018

Orange carries warmth, elegance, and profound symbolism. It anchors me to the terrestrial and recalls the Moroccan villages whose landscapes are bathed in radiant, sun-drenched tones.

Untitled, mixed technique on canvas, size 61cm x 70 cm, 2024

Violet is, in my eyes, a color of enchantment—imbued with a unique, authentic sensibility. It signifies a fusion between floral delicacy and the vastness of nature, between coolness and an ultimate state of tranquillity. I often employ it within abstract landscapes to evoke that delicate balance.

Untitled, mixed technique on canvas, size 120cm x 130 cm, 2016

How has Jackson Pollock influenced you?

Jackson Pollock is a major figure who developed an abstract and gestural pictorial style that profoundly shaped the history of modern art, paving the way for the emergence of contemporary art based on concept and ideation.

Untitled, mixed technique on canvas, size 70cm x 70 cm, 2024

It is true that I have been influenced, by various artistic paradigms both modern and contemporary but at a certain point I chose to focus on my own accumulated experience and reflective awareness. This led me to a personal quest for identity, drawing from my ancestral culture while connecting this approach to a broader, universal artistic vision.

Untitled, mixed technique on canvas size 31cm x 35 cm, 2024

Contact:

Abdelaziz Lourhraz

Tel: +212 661 374 305
Facebook: www.facebook.com/lourhraz

Deborah Blakeley, Melbourne, Australia

Interview by Deborah Blakeley, December 2025

Images on these pages are all rights reserved by Abdelaziz Lourhraz

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