TEHRAN-The Iranian painter Mohammad Hashem Badri passed away on Tuesday at his home in Ahvaz, Khuzestan Province, at the age of 78.

Badri was a war veteran and an artist. His legs were injured in 1981 during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, ISNA reported.

The plight of disabled war veterans, and his determination and resilience, helped him create unique, delicate, and beautiful artworks.

Badri registered his own unique painting style called “Badrism” in France in 1995. It is a method of scattering color on paper and then using a palette knife to draw on it.

“I spent most of my free time painting with a palette knife,” he once said, adding that most of his relatives were plasterers and worked with a trowel or spatula. So, the background inspired him to create a new style of painting.

Trees, leaves, and natural elements can be seen in most of his paintings. “I’m so close to nature. I even speak with trees and see them in my dreams,” he had noted. The strong rapport with nature is evident in his works.

He was also a painting instructor for the blind and taught painting to over 500 blind people. “Different methods are used to teach drawing to the blind. We can press down a ballpoint pen or crayon on paper and touch the effect. We can shape flexible wires, put them on paper, and draw lines around them. We can also use scissors to cut off cardboard in various shapes and then stick them on paper, or draw forms in a straight line by Braille,” he had said in an interview.

Regarding the methods used for recognizing colors, he said, “By coding or lining up color pencils in a box, various colors can be taught to the blind”.

His works have been showcased in over 50 exhibitions in Iran and other countries including France, Algeria, and Azerbaijan.

SS/SAB