Halla Bint Khalid  is an author and illustrator of children's books in both Arabic and English, with her own publishing house: DarJerboa Children's Books in Riyadh. She is also an established painter and has since 1988 become experienced in many techniques, using oilpaint, watercolour, both dry and oil pastel, gouache and acrylic. Her paintings, of which we found images online, show her working in the realistic manner of a storyteller of the past and memory. We were charmed by a passing guard in front of the windows of a nineteen fifties automobile, with only partly visible on the back seat an image of former king AbdulAziz, who was given the nick name  'Al Shuyook,' because he was not only sheikh of his tribe, but as king also head of all tribes. On her facebook page the artist made it known that she made the painting using a model for the guard and that moving outside with the model, having him stand in the sun, added to her grasp of reality, when his eyes and face reacted to the sun. Another realistic image made by the artist, which could be seen on her facebook page, is of a portrait of a man whom she describes as the 'milk brother and chaperone' of her mother. (2012) 

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From top to bottom: Sand Riddles, bookcover illustration, Al Shuyook (detail), oil 131 x 149 cm (1995).