This is how the artist described her rather complex, multi-stage creative journey. The first stop on this journey was Cairo, where she relocated in 1972 with the aim of realising her ambition to become an artist. The concepts of freedom of life and freedom of creativity were not merely rhetorical for Thuraya Al Baqsami; she was steadfast in her determination to actualise these principles. And the decision to pursue higher education in Egypt represented a significant personal and professional gamble for the young woman from Kuwait. At that time, there were no opportunities to study art in Kuwait, and Cairo was one of the main centres of art education. Consequently, the artist was admitted to the Faculty of Fine Arts in Zamalek to study art. The artist's impressions of the university were equivocal, but she was certain of one thing: her artistic skills were not improving. The artist found herself in a state of creative and educational crisis. However, in 1974, she was presented with the opportunity to continue her professional training at the Surikov Moscow State Art Institute. The motivation behind her decision to pursue this trait was twofold: on the one hand, she was driven by a profound desire to expand her intellectual horizons, and on the other, by her personal sentiments, as her husband had departed for Moscow to continue his education.
Upon arrival in the Soviet Union in 1974, Thuraya was admitted to Moscow State University's preparatory Russian language course, and in September 1975, she enrolled at the Surikov Moscow State Art Institute, which remains the nation's preeminent institution of art education. As previously evidenced, she once again defied stereotypes, this time in the USSR, where she became the first Arab woman to enroll in a Soviet university to study art. It is interesting to note that, to acquire her education and artistic skills, the artist chose not the prestigious faculties of easel painting or monumental art, but the Faculty of Graphic Art and the Book Illustration workshop. In that place, under the guidance of the renowned artist and book illustrator Boris Dekhterev (1908–1993), she embarked on a training programme that would equip her with the necessary skills to become a proficient printmaker. It was in this environment that she acquired a range of graphic printmaking techniques, including lithography and linocut, which significantly influenced her creative output. Subsequently, her oeuvre gained renown for its graphic techniques, which were virtually unparalleled in the Arab world at that time. The choice of this area of art studies may also be attributed to her childhood, when the young future artist began reading Arabic illustrated comics, novels, short stories, and poetry with great enthusiasm. Indeed, the illustrations regarded as exemplary in the field of children's art are often remembered over a lifetime, thereby instilling in individuals a love of art from an early age. By the age of 14, she had already begun to publish her own short stories in local magazines and newspapers. At the age of 17, Thuraya published her first book of stories entitled The Black Sweat. The realm of books and their illustrations, which animate text and augment its visual and emotional resonance for readers, became an integral part of her creative oeuvre. The artist's selection of the institute’s graduation project was not an arbitrary decision; it was informed by a deliberate choice to create works that would serve as a medium for conveying artistic messages inspired by traditional heritage and folkloric sources, with the intention of inspiring her Arab audience. Hence, upon completion of her studies in 1981, she presented a collection of illustrations for the book Aladdin's Magic Lamp.
The subsequent phase of Thuraya Al-Baqsami's artistic trajectory, in the late 1970s, involved a sojourn in Africa. She relocated to the region to join her husband, who had been assigned to the Kuwaiti embassies in Zaire and Senegal. In this setting, she encountered not only a divergent cultural and artistic milieu but also a paradigm shift in her own artistic practice. The environment was characterised by a distinctiveness that was palpable in the chromatic palette and the mediums employed. The advent of new traditions, beliefs, and customs imparted a novel dimension to the artist's oeuvre. New characters and plots emerged, contributing to the evolution of the narrative. The primary subject in Thuraya’s oeuvre during this period was a female figure: the mistress of the house, the conductor of rituals, the custodian of traditions and beliefs. To enhance the expressiveness of her work, the artist sought to explore new methods of expression. Through silk painting, she discovered the ability to create bold white lines to delineate the contours of her subjects' faces and eyes, a technique analogous to that in her linocut prints. Subsequently, the artist began to utilise this technique on canvas. Furthermore, she engaged in the study of novel artistic techniques—Dakar served as a significant educational hub for Thuraya, where she honed her skills in silkscreen and batik techniques between 1981 and 1983, in addition to painting on silk and ceramics. Consequently, this experiment led to the development of her distinctive signature style, which incorporated elements of printmaking, silk painting and figurative art. This artistic method would remain with her for many decades and define the direction of her artistic expression, making her paintings unique phenomena of 20th-century Arab art.
