Saudi Gazette report

JEDDAH — Ohud Abdullah Almalki, known as ‘The Artist of the Nation’, marked an incredible milestone by becoming the first Saudi woman to achieve a Guinness World Records title singlehandedly, the global authority on record-breaking achievements said.

The Al Naseem neighbourhood product in Jeddah draws the largest coffee painting in the world using expired granules, illustrating seven renowned figures of Saudi Arabia and the neighboring United Arab Emirates.

Two giant pictures of the founding fathers of the two nations, the late King Abdulaziz Bin Abdul Rahman, and the late Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan.

On the painting as well, pictures of KSA and UAE rulers including the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman, Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman are painted.

Bearing in mind the waste, Almalki used approximately 4.5 kg of expired coffee powder only. She painted all the figures in hues of brown mixing the coffee powder with water. The edges are done with the “Saud” style that is a traditional Bedouin decoration style.

“It took me 45 days of continuous work to complete, under the watchful eyes of two witnesses, video recording and drone footage,” Almalki said. “My aim is to remind the world of the centuries-old entente between the two nations.”

This painting is called Naseej 1, and it is spread over 220.968 square meters, 15.84 meters long, and 13.95 meters wide. It is made out of 7 connected cotton cloths; each measuring 15.84 meters long x 2 meters wide.

“Normally, only one kind of coffee is used in such paintings, but I have used 4 different shades of brown coffee. I used several rollers and paintbrushes of different sizes to finish this project.

A drone footage of the painting was shown in “Mokhatat Ar-Riyad” neighborhood in Jeddah with the artist behind the painting with her father.

Women of Saudi Arabia took part in previous Guinness World Records attempts, but this is the first time a Saudi woman achieves a GWR world record on her own.

In 2015, the largest human awareness ribbon consisted of 8,264 participants and was achieved by the women of Saudi Arabia at an event organized by 10KSA in Riyadh.

As a student in 5th year of College of Law at King Abdulaziz University, in Jeddah, Almalki has already taken social media by storm, featuring weekly on popular TV channels across the MENA region.

“This tremendous feat would have been impossible without the support of the people around me. I wish this will contribute to empowering the women in Saudi Arabia and beyond,” she said.