Girl at Her Embroidery

Maide Arel was born in Istanbul in 1907. She entered the Academy of Fine Arts in 1930, attending the studios of Nazmi Ziya Güran and Hikmet Onat. In 1935 she married the painter Şemsi Arel, son of the painter Mehmet Ruhi. In 1949 she went to Paris, where she worked at the studio of Andre Lhote. In 1957 she and her husband were sent to the province of Hatay to paint local scenes as part of the Homeland Paintings project. Maide Arel was awarded second prize in the Ankara Community Centre Art Competition in 1948, a bronze medal at the Union Feminine Artistique et Culturelle - Salon International in 1964 and the grand prize at the 10th Vichy International Biennale in 1974.