Hello and welcome to my art gallery!

My name is May Attar and I am a California based artist.

I love to spread joy with my paintings. My art pieces are colorful, bright, and uplifting. They are highly textured, palette knife oil paintings.

I love using a palette knife... I'm actually obsessed with it. I love how it builds up texture, and how the texture reflects the light differently, more dramatically than a regular brush, it also creates lots of movement. I use the palette knife to make bold, choppy, strong strokes, but the brush for a more detailed, blended and transparent feeling—it all depends on my inspiration and mood.

I am endlessly inspired by nature. My biggest focus is finding new motifs to reflect in my art and to instill positive and optimistic feelings into it.

Thank you for joining me on my journey and welcome to my world of colors!

How it all started..

My story started in the beautiful city of Beirut where I was born. My parents noticed my passion for art and did everything in their powers to nurture it. It was not very hard for them because my dad owned a bookstore/stationary shop and sold art supplies. You can certainly say I was the shop’s youngest and most enthusiastic customer. The most loyal one too!

My parents made sure to dedicate a space for me at home, where I would spend endless hours drawing, coloring and copying paintings of famous artists while listening to music... That space was my escape zone, my safety corner and my happy little place. At school I excelled in arts. It was for sure, and with no doubt my favorite subject and I used to look forward to the art class every week to work on new subjects and sharpen my skills, learn new techniques and how to truly interpret my feelings on canvas. Upon graduating from high school, art school was waiting for me. The creative energy that existed in the air and was even felt by the walls of my class brought me a feeling of freedom and serenity. I received my degree in Art from the Lebanese University in 2006.

During that same year, I met my husband and we moved to Dubai. We lived there for ten years, during which we had our two beautiful daughters 'Lea' and 'Lara'. Visitors and tourists are usually struck by the majestic and enchanting city of Dubai. I was also amazed ... But I wasn't inspired enough and I couldn’t paint. I was not able to connect with my inner self, and I felt distanced. I missed home, my parents, and the crazy city of Beirut.

In 2016, my family and I decided to move to California because we needed a change. A fresh new beginning, change of scenery and new inspirations..

As soon as we landed in California, I felt a strong connection, an instant deep inspiration. I often found myself standing in complete awe in front of the amazing California landscape and the mysterious Pacific Ocean. The forever shining California sun brought back the artist in me again.

In 2017, I gave birth to my son, my ‘Danny boy’...my everything. Sometime after that, I started giving art classes to children at my house. Spending time with these kids and sharing with them my love and passion for art and color was honestly everything I needed.

California allowed me to unleash the creative artist in me, and I have been constantly practicing my skills and techniques to create masterpieces with unique and eye- catching effects. I hope you like them too! This is my story in a nutshell and thank you for taking the time to read it. If you would like to share your passion for art and love for colors, I would be more than happy to read about it.

Please send me an email here: info@mayattar.com

Thank you!