Currently on display in France. Growing demand for paintings by Osama bin Laden’s son around the world (photos)

Omar bin Laden, son of former al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, has been painting during home quarantine.

His paintings are the focus of an exhibition currently taking place in France amid growing demand for his work worldwide.

He says: “We used to spend time” during the quarantine period “inside the house doing nothing important,” adding, “My wife used to draw and I felt the need to try and practice it.”

He adds: “I learned how to draw from YouTube videos and fell in love” with the art… Among many other activities, drawing has become “the most interesting thing” for me.

Omar believes that getting what he wants is a step that makes him “very happy”.

Most of the paintings on display, the largest of which measure no more than 60 x 80 centimeters, reflect memories of Omar bin Laden’s childhood and youth.

Osama bin Laden’s son spent the first years of his life in his hometown of Saudi Arabia.

“We went to live with my father in Sudan when I was ten years old, before we left four years later for Afghanistan,” he says.

These two countries stand out strongly in the work of Omar bin Laden, as one of his paintings depicts mountains in red and is present in Afghanistan, which he describes as “an amazing country” and says that “red symbolizes suffering, war, explosions and death, which is the most difficult stage in my life.

He believes the painting becomes “part of its owner”, adding that “a part of me still lives in Afghanistan”.

After spending five years in this country of which he has vivid memories, he left his father at the age of nineteen to start a new life during which he traveled between many Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, arriving in France in 2016 and settled down. in the Normandy region.

Last year, an exhibition of his drawings was canceled due to pandemic-related lockdowns, but this time around 30 paintings, most of them full of color, were on display in a huge second-hand market. , after Omar received an invitation from a site manager who was close to bin Laden’s son.

Trader Pascal Martin says that “Omar’s paintings have been sold very much since his first works were presented … Although the exhibition has not yet opened, some paintings have been booked in advance … Bin Laden’s name attracts buyers.”

The price of small paintings ranges from 750 to 800 euros (from 782 to 834 dollars), and the price of large ones – from 2000 to 2500 euros (from 2085 to 2607). were sold to them in installments,” explains Martin.

Omar, who signs his OBL drawings, has a sense of “satisfaction” when he draws and says with a smile that rarely appears on his face, “I will feel happier if I succeed, and if I don’t succeed, I will repeat the ball “.

Away from city life, which he hates, the lover of nature, open spaces and freedom is enjoying his new life, as he stated that people sometimes judge me by who my father is. They let me live in peace.”

“In France, I became an artist,” he says with pleasure.

Source: AFP.