NAZIHA BOUSSIDI

Tunisia - Tunisian artist Amina Bettaieb has been interested in art since her childhood. Although she wanted to study fine art, her father asked her to focus on scientific subjects such as mathematics, science and languages. After studying French language at university, she got married and gave birth to three daughters. She spent her life raising her daughters and working as a French teacher. But after her retirement, she decided to realize her childhood dream.

“I started thinking about how to spend my time after my retirement. I decided to attend a painting course and paint to decorate my house by using flowers or natural elements. Everyone around me told me that there is an artist inside me after seeing the changes I made in my house, my good choice of colors and the way I sewed the curtains and my clothes,” she told NuJINHA.

“Art is essential for life”

Amina Bettaieb gets up early in the morning to paint. “Painting takes my time; I make great efforts to focus on my artworks. Painting materials are very expensive and sometimes I cannot find them in Tunisia. I need to ask someone living abroad to buy the materials and bring them for me. I think art is essential for life, to preserve the national memory of every country. Art must be handed down to the next generations.”