TEHRAN -- Professor of cardiovascular surgery Hormoz Mehmanesh, whose exhibit is underway at Tehran’s E1 Art Gallery, calls his paintings visual diaries.

“Painting is a major element, which has always helped me tolerate the pressure of life all these years,” Mehmanesh said in a press release published by the gallery on Tuesday.

An exhibition of paintings by the professor opened in E1 Art Gallery on Friday under the title “Shadow of Silence”.

“I remember my first paintings go back to the time I was a young adult in Germany. Those years I was missing my family and I thought I might feel better with painting so I began to paint without having been in any painting classes,” the 60-year-old professor said.

Mehmanesh, who has studied psychology and medicine, added that difficult academic activities and different responsibilities during years forced him to be far from paintings for many years.

“However as I was growing older I thought I needed something to take me away from the problems of life and nothing better than the paint and brush could give me this chance to help my tension drain away in my privacy,” he said.

The professor also said that he does not believe in any special style and technique in painting but believes that anything that an artist sees and likes to transfer to the visitors will make his style.

“What is important in my work is that they narrate the crises I gave been through in different periods of my life,” he described.

“Painting begins for me where speech fails to express my inner thoughts and emotions. In my case, the answers are not blowing in the wind, but a dance of colors on canvas,” he added.

The exhibit will be running until May 26 at the gallery located at 1 Hamid Dead End, off Lesani Alley, Jebheh St., off Mahdieh St., in the Elahieh neighborhood.

Photo: Hormoz Mehmanesh poses beside one his paintings during an exhibition at Tehran’s E1 Art Gallery on May 12, 2017. (Honaronline/Ramona Mirian)

RM/YAW