ART OF A NOMAD: March 2013

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Sketch Muscat for charity

My annual sketching event for charity is coming up on the 11th April. I'm trying to beat the totals from the last two years and encouraging people to attend and/or donate as much as possible.

This year, I am again raising money for an Omani charity. Awladna promotes children's safety whether on the roads or in the home.

More details are on the facebook event page: Sketch Muscat for charity

Thursday, March 14, 2013

I have a friend who lives in a beautiful fishing village just east of Muscat; I sketched there on 12.12.12 at 12.12. I stayed with her last night, going to sleep to the sound of waves lapping on the shore and listening to them again when we had our leisurely breakfast in her garden. After such a lovely start, I headed to the beach with my sketchbooks and camera.

Pencil sketch A4 sketchbook ©Sue Pownall 2013

Qantab is unique as it is the only village in Oman, so I was told, that still uses old traditional wooden winches to drag the fishing boats ashore to their berths on the sand. I tried to verify the fact, but google comes up with so many results that after an hour I gave up. Despite the slow, chatty breakfast I was still there early enough for some fishermen to be bringing their boats back after the night/dawn fish. Checking quickly that photos were ok, I snapped some shots of the men winching a boat ashore, then grabbed my regular sketchbook (A5) and a pencil, the first drawing instrument which came to hand. There was too much movement, they winch quickly, so I swopped to my A4 sketchbook and captured what I could.

Pencil A4 ©Sue Pownall 2013

After two boats were brought ashore side-by-side, using adjacent winches, activity ceased at the top of the beach and the elderly fisherman sat on some nets in the shade to rest. He has a lovely face and only 2 or 3 teeth and was happy to sit drinking his water whilst I drew him. I showed him the drawings afterwards and was met with a toothless smile. I then paddled along the beach and back noting 100s of things I wanted to draw... mmm maybe a future project sketching and drawing the village... and sat down on a boat rest to draw the winch (top). I love how old fishing nets have been recycled as rope to lash some pieces together. The sketch took an hour, a really long time for me, and I stopped as I couldn't decide whether to add colour nor could I sit in the sun any longer. It maybe the end of winter but it was around 26c.

Pencil A4 ©Sue Pownall 2013

I foresee more mornings being spent drawing in this village.

Sunday, March 10, 2013

Persian plums.

The Aloo Tree, ink © Sue Pownall 2013

I'm really enjoying being an illustrator for the short story site, The Story Shack. Not only do I get different subject matter to illustrate, but I get the opportunity to use different styles. Above is this month's illustration, The Aloo Tree, whilst below is February's, How to Fail at Telemarketing.

Pen & watercolour wash illustration.© Sue Pownall 2013

Finally, here is January's illustration.

Coffee. Pen & coffee © Sue Pownall 2013

You can see more of my illustrations for The Story Shack by following this link: StoryShack illustrations.

Also, you can read the stories How to fail at Telemarketing and Coffee by clicking the titles, whilst you'll have to wait to read The Aloo Tree until it's published on the 18th.

Thank you for visiting my blog and I always appreciate the comments left.

Sue

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Seminar sketches

This year as part of the Muscat Festival (you can see my 2012 festival sketches here, here, here, here, all posts in between until... here), there was a Art Festival consisting of exhibitions and seminars/talks. I was able to attend four of the seminars, and took my A5 sketchbook to them all.

They were all very inspiring, I especially liked the talks given by architects with projects in the Sultanate. On another evening, artist Dominique Malarde was very interesting and I am a little annoyed that I missed her workshop due to water issues in my flat.