• "Abu Sayda, Iraq" - Image 1
1 1

SGT Ben Graham

"Abu Sayda, Iraq"

"Abu Sayda, Iraq"

$148.50 USD
$148.50 USD
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Edition
This is an oil pastel on mixed media paper, using vibrant colors, but it's called Abu Sayda for a reason. This is where I served a couple of years in Combat in Iraq. This depicts a Mother and her two daughter walking through the village of Abu Sayda in the Diyala Province of Iraq. Notice the palm groves in the back amongst their wood and clay homes. The Diyala river makes this village fresh, not as desert like most people vision Iraq is.

Artwork Details

Artist:
SGT Ben Graham
Artist Gallery:
View all works by SGT Ben Graham
Year Created:
2019
Dimensions:
17 × 11 × 0.4in
Edition:
Original 1/1
Style:
Graham builds the image around three front-facing figures placed close to the picture plane, so the eye meets the mother and children before the village fully resolves behind them. The oil pastel handling is direct and energetic: dense black contours, rubbed passages, and broad fields of saturated yellow, orange, green, and blue create a surface that holds both immediacy and roughness. The composition balances the monumental disk of sun against the low line of palm groves, clay houses, and the river edge, turning a lived place into a compressed memory field. The work stands in conversation with outsider figuration and expressionist landscape painting, where color carries feeling and description at once.
Tags:
oil pastel,expressionism,figurative landscape,iraq,vivid color,war memory,rural village,palm groves,sunlit horizon,outsider art

About SGT Ben Graham

SGT Ben Graham, based in 1731 Fontana Lane, creates original artwork available to collect on Art Emerge, an AI-powered marketplace for artists and collectors.

Key Facts

  • Location: 1731 Fontana Lane

I am a Wounded Veteran, 46 with a Purple Heart and Bronze Star with Valor among many other awards and decorations. I've seven tours to Iraq and Afghanistan, until I was shot and received 2 Brain Injuries from Roadside bombs in an attack. I went to school for Art and its my Passion. This was before and finished some when I was deployed online, which was not easy when it comes to art. I am Married to my Lovely Wife Lori and my 12 year old Ninja and Smart Daughter. We are definitely a Tripod.

Artist Statement

Artist Statement My name is SGT Ben Graham, and every piece you see here is more than just art — it is a living thank-you and a way for me to give back. As a wounded veteran, I create because it keeps me moving, focused, and connected when my disabilities try to hold me back. The true price of my work is not for profit. What you pay is a donation. That donation first covers the cost of the supplies I need to keep creating.

Browse available works below.

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