Saudi Gazette report

RIYADH – It’s a golden feather in the cap of the brilliant artistic life of a Saudi sculptor when he got the opportunity to undertake the exquisite designing and carving out of the foundation stone of the historic Diriyah Gate, which opened on Wednesday.

The 40-year-old Ali Al-Tukhais has designed and carved the five-roofed stone for the dream project of Saudi Arabia’s first capital and “Jewel of the Kingdom.”

Al-Tukhais is a specialist in rock carving who believes that this hard profession is the mother of the arts. He boasts of enjoying the unique honor of being part of the landmark project in the Kingdom’s rich history.

Ever since the first day of the selection of the artist Al-Tukhais for the designing and carving the cornerstone of the project to develop the Diriyah Gate, he has been working on the project, in a way keeping pace with the most important event to which the Saudi people are affectionately affiliated.

The components of the sculpture were extracted from the land of Diriyah, a pure yellow stone free of pores and cracks, and its color tones are close together, and its elements are similar. After hard work, it came out in the form of a small rectangular brick with 5 surfaces. “The Jewel of the Kingdom,” has been divided into six triangles symbolizing ancient popular characters.

In addition to the difficulty of dealing with rock sculpture, Al-Tukhais chose the abstract path. It is known that this type depends in the performance of abstract forms and models that are different from similar characters and visuals in their natural and realistic image, and is characterized by the artist’s ability to draw the form he imagines both from reality or imagination in a completely new form that may or may not resemble the original form of the final drawing with the distance from the geometric shapes.

He has learned this art as a hobby from the founder of sculpture in the Kingdom, Abdullah Al-Abdullatif. Though his sons are reluctant to inherit the sculpture from him, Al-Tukhais continues his busy career with achievements. He justified taking this as his profession after he passionately in love with this trade that has every means to dazzle the people. He has already represented the Kingdom in several international and continental exhibitions.