Scene au Douar - Scene in the Village

Two 20x10 watercolor on cardboard by Mohamed “Baba” Babahoum in double glass and gold frame

These works visualize scenes drawn from everyday rural life around the regions of Marrakesh and Essaouira, where family, labor and coexistence remain deeply intertwined. Through simplified figures and sparse gestures, the compositions evoke the quiet rhythms of agricultural life while also hinting at structures of tribal presence and authority. The family appears not as an isolated subject, but as an inseparable part of the surrounding landscape and social order.

Rendered with direct black outlines and filled with restrained yet vivid color, the drawings reflect the artist’s instinctive and archaic visual language. Forms remain frontal, absolute, and intentionally simplified, giving the scenes a timeless and almost symbolic quality. Human expression is conveyed through minimal detail — elongated limbs, fixed profiles and stylized faces become carriers of emotion, hierarchy, and gesture rather than realism. As in much of the artist’s work, the drawings balance innocence with authority. Their apparent simplicity conceals a deeply rooted visual memory, where daily life, folklore and collective identity merge into a singular pictorial world.

About the artist: Mohamad became an artist at the age of 70, with his first drawings on the back of materials he could find including packaging paper and cardboard. Prior to this, he had a long career as metal dealer and supplier to the Medina shops.  When he first showed his drawings around the Medina, he told people his grandson did the work. Mohamad still produces art and his distinct work was presented in several galleries around Essaouira.