Bader Jasem Hohammed Al Qatami comes from a long line of merchants and skippers who apparently settled in what is now Kuwait yet before the Atubi ,who arrived in 1716, founded the state.
Beder's family owned a mercantile fleet for the transportation of goods, mainly through the Gulf area .
Bader Al Qatami was born in 1943 in Al Ganim district ,which together with the Saud district formed the heart of Old Kuwait town. His mental disposition reflects a happy ,unmarred childhood modelled after a father he adored .
His father , Jasem was strict in a way, but open minded and Bader's admiration influenced his behavior as he grew up. His propensity for leadership was enhanced by the fact that unlike the other children of his days he always had pocket money to spend and that made him feel special .
Boisterous and proud but with a heart of gold Bader grew to manhood respected and admired by those who understand him , but resented by those who hate his guts and bluntness in his speech .
Brought -up in a time when honesty was the virtue of the day ,Beder cannot stand the hypocrisies and false pretenses, which have become conspicuous ,since the inflows of hundreds of nationalities seeking work and opportunities in Kuwait ,have changed the social panorama in which the old Kuwaiti spirit no longer exist , except in the older generation .
At the beginning of his artistic career Bader came under the influence of the great artists he admires , specially of Vincent Van Gogh .
Catching birds and fishing were his favorite sports in his younger days and the various techniques related to those sports are the subject of many of his paintings.
From early childhood art was in his blood and his father never objected to it, indeed whenever Bader needed material for painting or drawing he gave him the money for it . But not everyone was happy with his activity , for he had become notorious for scribbling on walls and doors of every house he had a chance to ,and people were complaining to his father. .
In school as everywhere else Bader was a restless, commanding and boisterous little boy , but not lacking in fine sensibilities, and his teachers soon found a solution to his ego by putting him in charge of his class .
Sports attracted him and he was good in Basket-ball as he was in foot-ball.Of all subjects mathematics and drawing were his favorite .
In art Beder came to notice in 1959 when his Head-master presented one of his painting to Sheikh Abdulla Al Jaber, the Director General of the Education Department at that time,who in receiving the gift rewarded Beder with five hundred rupees ,a large sum in those days .
Typical of him he spend the money in hiring a film - "Antar " and bought candies as a treat to the students of his school.
After he joined the Spring Collective exhibition of 1959 , the Education Committee appreciating his artistic inclination sent him on field training to Failaka , at the time a Danish Archaeological team was digging for artifacts.
During the three months he spent there Bader produced some works which plainly reflected his interested in painting rather than archaeology, hence he was sent him to the Free Fine Arts Institute in Cairo in 1962 for a term of four years . With the exception of his teacher , Abdul Aziz Al Darwish , whom he admired ,Beder did not like the method of teaching at the Institute,whose propensity of influencing students to adopt the Egyptian made him uncomfortable , however he produced many works and joined a number of exhibitions .
At his return home , in 1966, he was sent to the Byam Shaw School of art in England from which he got his diploma in 1972 .
In England his whole outlook to painting changed .
A new faith was born . In its glow Bader felt free to express himself, free to develop his potentials in the field he strived to excel, free to engage in new ways, new expediencies that might lead him to his final objective .
Following his mental inclination he soon emerged with a style that is both definite and personal ,verging on the realistic aspect of life .
Transparent and mundane his works are not decorated pilfering painted with facility and charm , they have the force of things experienced intensely and habitually, filled with memories and the substance of his soul.
Most, if not all of his works, are the reflection of his surrounding filled with past memories projected on the familiar scene .
Bader's art does not charm or excite us with new aspects of nature but it engages our attention ,not by the directness of its statement, but rather by an appeal stemming from integrated experience .
Outstanding among his numerous works are those he painted in the aftermath of the Iraqi invasion of which he made an impressive exhibition . In them the artist has arrested time .
The scenery of devastation left behind by the Iraqis is seen in its dramatic portent. It is knowledge of facts presented in its relation to personal judgment of values, intensified by feelings evoked by an experience that lasted 209 days ,and the artist has painted it with sardonic fury in its whole gamut of events.
One of the main artists in the Kuwait art movement , Bader Al Qatami may not be the leader as he proposed himself to be in his quest through life, but he is a honest artist who paints with a message and a purpose of his own .
Beder Al Qatami published three books- one contains his drawings, another holds many of his paintings in water-color and oil, and the third is his pictorial impression on the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait ,entitled "209 days." By Lidia Qattan