'PAINTING IS THE SOUL OF MY UNIVERSE, GIVES WINGS TO MY SPIRIT, GIVES COMFORT IN MY SORROW AND IS MY REASON TO LOVE'.
RACHID HANBALI was born in 1970 in Sidi Ifni, Morocco. He was a prize-winner of the National School of Fine Arts Award in Tétouan, Morocco, and of the University of Fine Arts, Granada, Spain. He regards Spain as his second home, having spent almost half his life on the Iberian Peninsula.
He has held collective and individual exhibitions in a number of countries including the UK, the USA, Canada, Spain, Morocco and China, and in 2009, at Beijing's International Festival of Contemporary Art he recieved the Creativity Award from the Ministry of Culture of China for his painting 'Moroccan Horsemen Galloping'.
He currently lives and works in Nerja, Andalusia, Spain in a country house which he shares with his English partner, Helen, painting 'au plein air' and taking inspiration from the natural beauty which surrounds him.
Hanbali’s paintings often refer to Morocco’s landscapes and its people. In his atmospheric depictions he retains light and colour, expressing an emotional response to the subject and his inner world.
With his perfectly mastered brushwork Hanbali creates shifting patterns of the natural scene, a portal for an exploration of the sublime. His iconic pictorial presentations tell of his affection for Moroccan and Iberian splendour.