Artist Badri Valian focuses on the beauty of the human body in her paintings

by LINDA HUBBARD GULKER on SEPTEMBER 8, 2016

If you get a sense that the human figures in Badri Valian’s paintings are moving, that’s exactly what the artist hopes.

“I paint standing up and put on music, and the rhythm of the music makes me move,” she says. “Drawing or painting is a dynamic activity.”

Badri moved to the United States from Iran three years ago. She received a degree in Fine Arts in her home country and began painting there professionly. She uses a mix of acrylic, charcoal, marker, and chalk and calls her artwork, which are quite large, “expressive abstracts.”

A selection of her paintings are currently on display at Gitane on Santa Cruz Avenue through mid-October. More can be viewed on Saatchi Art. Badri will be at Gitane on Sunday, Sept. 18 from noon to 4:00 at an artist’s reception.

The Menlo Park resident spends two days a week painting “at least five hours” and works as a personal trainer at a Palo Alto fitness studio on other days. Both vocations fit a person who has great admiration for the human body.

“I find beauty in the human body no matter what the shape,” she says. “I loved the curves, and I love the shape. Sometimes I pick out some part of the body and focus on just that part. The human body is beautiful.”

Painting titled “Summer Beach” by Badri Valian