Today's Edition
SAMIHAH ZAMAN (ABU DHABI)
At a time when digital technology has taken over the world of art, two engineers found a yearning to create paintings in their most traditional sense. Faced with a lack of experience in visual expression, Mohamad Abbas and Bahaa Eddine Mneymneh chose to leverage their expertise and develop a platform that would allow almost anyone to create artwork worthy of display.
The co-founders of uPaint said their startup, which launched in Lebanon five years ago and provides complete paint-by-numbers kits, now has a strong following in the UAE, reflecting the nation's love for creative expression.
"Art is truly booming here. When we decided to expand to the UAE last year, we expected that Lebanese expats familiar with our work would help popularise our offerings.
Yet we find a diversity of customers here who are taking our venture to the next level," Abbas told Aletihad.
"Amidst the global focus on digital art, it is good to have an offline activity that allows us to chill and de-stress. There are many apps based on painting by numbers, and we didn't want to develop another app. We wanted to offer people an experience that allows them time to bond, to connect with the canvas and the paints, and eventually leave them with a painting that can be hung up," he added.
At their booth at BRIDGE Summit, Abbas and Mneymneh are seeing strong interest in uPaint. In particular, visitors are intrigued by the opportunity to transform any picture into a paint-by-numbers canvas. Users can upload their desired picture onto the website, then order the canvas and kit, which includes all the acrylic paints and brushes required to transform the image into a finished artwork.
"We are engineers by background and neither of us knows how to paint, nor did we want to expend the time learning how to paint. But we wanted to be able to create works of art that were worthy of being hung. So we decided to build software that would allow us to transform any picture into numbered regions," Abbas explained.
Pressing ahead with their mission to make art accessible for all, the startup has also made inroads towards bigger projects, including delivering a stencil for a mural at the Sharjah Research Technology and Innovation Park that was completed by community members.The founders envision even bigger achievements for their venture going forward, and said they were delighted to be at an event with reach as wide as BRIDGE Summit 2025.
"The UAE appetite for art is huge, and the UAE itself gave us an opportunity to connect with people from different cultures, so we are very grateful to be here," Abbas said.
