Amir began oil painting at 12 years old mentored by his older brother Mhadda, a master painter. Two years later he was already selling his paintings to eager friends and neighbors. Determined to be an artist, Amir left home seeking adventure, knowledge and his fortune. His first stop was Istanbul, Turkey where he met a gallery owner and painter who began purchasing his paintings. Some months later, Amir was shocked to discover that these same paintings were selling as the painter's own work for a much grander price. Ironically, viewing his paintings on a bona fide gallery wall, validated to Amir that his quest as an artist was on a genuine path.

Amir became a Pilgrim of the Arts, studying and painting his way through Amsterdam, Italy, Belgium, France, Bulgaria, Greece, and Germany. Later he settled in Toronto, Canada where he ran The Irena Art Gallery for several years. Here he explored and experienced other realms of the art world and lived the material life he had dreamed of as a boy in Tehran. It did not take him long, however, to realize that his soul was restless, and that to be truly happy, he would have to follow its lead. Instinctively he knew that it would guide him to a greater and more intrinsic prize.

After a trip through California, Amir arrived in Santa Barbara, which felt exactly right. His studio is an oasis in the woods where everyday he awakens to the glory of nature and the distant mountains casting their mystical glow. He has come to know in his heart that all external beauty, the entire visual creation, is also inside of each of us, and it is just as available to explore as the external world. Amir feels compelled to share this grandiose experience, and intense love of beauty and grand design through his art. His original oil paintings are outstanding, compelling, and profoundly individual in their varied subject matter and texture. He has the ability to transcend east and west and bring the viewer so deeply inside of his paintings, that they are often astounded with inexpressible feeling.

For the last few years, Amir has studied with a master designer and he has begun to expand his talents to the creation of murals, and specialty wall finishes, as well as faux stone finishes that represent an artistic and architectural renaissance in environmental design. Through his art and his artful way of life, Amir continues to explore the exquisite nature of the universal soul and his role in gracefully and majestically portraying it' s splendor to the world at large.

His personal website is www.amirpaintings.org