Showcasing my work

Before the event.

On Thursday I wrote that a friend was hosting an art event to showcase my original drawings and new limited edition giclée prints here in Doha. I am very happy to report that it was a wonderful day and a great success. I was especially worried that nobody wold turn up, but we had people coming in all day. It was a wonderfully informal affair, which suited me, with people staying for a tea or coffee, cake and a chat.

Remember in that last post I wrote:

"if I make a sale I will be happy or if I gain a commission that would be nice too"

Well, with regards to prints, I covered my printing costs and ended up in profit on print sales. I sold all four copies of my book Portraits of Khartoum that I had. However, the biggest news was that I sold the framed original of Khalifa's Gate. I'm sad to let it go, to be honest, but I know the new owner will give it a good home. Two of the prints sold were also of Khalifa's Gate, which I have to confess to being a favourite. Still, as one of our guests said,  'Duke Ellington, who, when asked what his favourite composition was, replied that he hadn't written it yet'. I guess my favourite is the next one I draw.

SOLD! With the happy new owner of Khalifa's Gate.

A special thanks goes to my fantastic friend Karen who hosted the day, a big thank you to all my friends who came and supported me, and finally thank you to everyone who bought something.

With the event's wonderful hostess.

If you wish to purchase one of my limited edition giclée prints, or wish to commission a drawing, please use the contact form above. 

Full details on print availability were in my newsletter and will be available on a tab here in the next day or two.

Trees for Life Charity fundraiser.

The President's Tree, pen & ink, 160 x 230mm © Sue Pownall 2011

This drawing has been done for the Trees for Life charity exhibition. 

Trevor Jones explains all about it. 

"Through the magic of Twitter and other social media tools, artists from around the world are coming together to create beautiful artworks inspired by their own natural environment. Each signed, original artwork will sell for £45 with every artist very generously donating 100% of the sales to the award winning Scottish charity Trees for Life!

The United Nations General Assembly declared 2011 as the International Year of Forests to raise awareness on sustainable management, conservation and sustainable development of all types of forests. With only 1% of the original Caledonian forest remaining it's crucial we do all that we can to help Trees for Life with their mission. This year Trees for Life aims to plant its one millionth tree! This would be an amazing achievement and we want to help make this a reality by raising £10 000 through this exhibition."

You can visit my contribution here. All pictures are for sale on the website and at the November exhibition: 1 - 13 November. Out of the Blue. Edinburgh
 
This is the 3rd time I have drawn this tree. It gets its title from the original sketch, whilst in Khartoum (below), and the story, which you can read in this post Moved on by the police!!!

On location sketch of the President's tree.

Next, I used the sketch combined with some photos to produce a finished piece (below), which was exhibited in Muscat last December. Here is the post on the Muscat exhibition.  

Khartoum Chai Ladies, Pen & ink  200x400mm ©Sue Pownall 2010.

 Looking at the three pieces I notice the changes in the tree. Can you?

Slumped

WIP: Secret garden 2nd April

Works in NON progress for last 2 weeks.

The struggle continues, I've not even been sketching, however today I forced myself to work on Secret Garden. Bored now. Unmotivated.

A positive: I have updated my book Portraits of Khartoum with new improved cleaner pictures AND a price reduction. Why not order yourself a copy?

Just published: Khartoum Portraits

Check out my blurb book.

Portraits of Khartoum by Sue Pownall | Make Your Own Book

Escorted by the police - the photos

The story of my adventure this morning, which ended with me being driven to the hotel between two policemen,  and the embarrassment of walking into the hotel reception side-by-side with them is on my other blog here. Below are some photos of Khartoum taken this morning before this all happened.

A shop

A street cleaner

Nasty plastic bags, which are every where

Ingenious sunshade attached to a kiosk (Closed because it's Friday morning)

A college courtyard

The adjacent church

 A mosque

Why would anyone paint a building florescent green and orange?

Lime green in its proper place

Chai ladies under a tree

Faculty of medicine

A portrait in orange

Finally, the reason for my escort.

THE STORY IS HERE .

Please remember all photos are © and all rights reserved by Sue Pownall.

Contact me if you wish to use any images, thank you.

Waiting for a bus

The hotel I have been in for the last two weeks (I changed due to the appalling food and service at the other one, but that's a tale for my other blog) is on a busy down-town junction. Following writing exams, I got to come back early to mark the papers. Before starting, I'm great at procrastination, I had lunch and was watching the people opposite catching buses. Masses of people would appear, as if from no-where, stand for no more than 5 or 6 minutes and then get swallowed up by a bus. The three women in my sketch were not standing there at the same time, but are representational of the groups that were. I drew them in consecutively left to right. Sometimes they were all women of mixed ages, sometimes old married women in their thobes, and at other times young women in their denim skirts and bright colours. Men were also waiting.

The traditional wear for married women is the thobe, and it can look really beautiful and elegant. However, some of the larger ladies allow it to slip underneath their bellies and get wrapped around their shoulders, as the lady on the left of the sketch and in this bottom photo.

Back in my room and after doing half the marking, I worked with the resistance of the moleskin paper, using a virtually dry brush, to add the colour. I also took the photos out of my 5th floor window.   

Top - people disappearing into a bus, middle - a daisy-print thobe & traditional jelabiah, bottom- how thobes often end up. Can you imagine what it looks like face on?

Classroom sketches

The ladies writing.

Heads & hands.

I hate my moleskin!

I haven't sketched anything for a few days as I have been completely exhausted. On top of that all mental energy has been taken up with trying to secure the immediate future.

Last night I walked to the park whilst watching storm clouds overhead and hearing distant thunder rumbling above the city. The air is permanently full of dust and with sunset it just went yellower. Being early to meet my friend, I pulled out my moleskin and watercolours, started to try and capture the amazing clouds and cried out "why won't a moleskin take watercolours????" With fading light I did the best I could to capture the storm in colour and to ink in the kiosk in the park and the surroundings.

It is such a shame moleskins do not take washes as the size is perfect to pop in a bag or even pocket. Mind, before it I had a similar sized small sketchbook, half the price, and it took washes. Back to that brand for me I think, if I can find it.

BTW it didn't rain where I was, but apparently did in other parts of the city. However, the storm brought a delicious breeze and a drop in temperature. It was hort-lived relief as today has been boiling again!!! Or as Al Jazeera International's forecast - Extremely Hot.

Tue		Afternoon clouds. Extremely hot.  41°C
Wed		More sun than clouds. Extremely hot.  43°C

EDM #18 Draw the view from a window... V2

As I wrote in my last post, with the second exam on Monday I drew the view out of the window. It was only a class test and not part of the evaluation, so if someone looked sideways it was not too important.

I know a bad workman blames his tools, but I struggled with this. I'm still using the horrible Koh-i-noor 0.05, which I don't like for it's lack of blackness. I've injured my last Staedtlar 0.1, so it's working like a 0.5 or fatter. Finally, there's the small moleskin. I've never had one before, and I know there is a watercolour version available (in a strange landscape format), but I hate how the normal sketchbook does not take washes well. Anyway, I added the colour at the hotel and then did some more drawing on site on Tuesday morning.

Exam sketches

Doing their weekly exam on Monday, I first drew El Tigani with his very upright posture, when I noticed Ahmed was struggling with the test. Moving frequently, Ahmed's most unusual position was wrapping his right arm across his face and onto his left shoulder (he's left handed) and I tried to capture this every time he moved into that position. (portrait sketch top right) He has beautiful hands, which were full of tension, but they moved so frequently I was unable to capture them. I think the bottom portrait has captured his sadness at the difficulty of the paper.

With the second class, I sketched the view out of the window, but was unable to finish it within the time, so I intend to either finish it at break tomorrow or the day after and post it then.

Moved on by the police!!!!

On Saturday, finding a tree that gave shade to rest under and a beautiful trunk to draw seemed the perfect solution to my blue mood, which I was walking off. I leant against a wall and started to draw.Working from the pavement up and across I got the main lines in. I then outlined the road and gate opposite with the framing leaves. Relaxing nicely, I started to detail the trunk, trying to emphasis the twists and turns, when along came a police guard. I showed him what I was doing, uninterested he asked for my passport, which was not on me. So I gave him my driver's license, which he pretended to read as I'm sure he couldn't read English. Then, he told me I could not stay there, even drawing a tree. He had a fair point as the wall I was leaning against both is for the Republican museum and the Presidential Palace. Shame though as I think it would have been a good sketch when finished.

Waiting to be sent to the laundry

Waiting to be sent to the laundry
Originally uploaded by travelingsuep

Living in a hotel for the past 3 months has had it's perks: I put my dirty clothes in a bag and 2 days later they come back cleaned, ironed and already on hangers.

This drawing was inspired by the Urban Sketchers on flickr group's weekly theme: Laundry, Clothes, Washing, Wash

Solitaire restaurant

It is very, very hot today, so I walked down the block to Solitaire restaurant to get some lunch. After I ate a bowl of salad I drew these fellow dinners who were on a lower level from me. I think I screwed up the perspective, but quite like the overall feel.

Whilst watching tv

I was sketching whilst watching tv. I'm not sure why I left the pad on the angle I put it down on the sofa, but I did. It is A3, which is not a size I normally use to sketch on, so maybe that is the reason.

Very excitingly, we have just had a storm here in Khartoum. Only a little rain, but terrific thunder &  lightning. The air smells wonderful now. I love storms!!!!

Wet roads & sheet lightning.

 The sky lit up. It's 10pm, Awesome.

WorldWide SketchCrawl #27

Spread of the first 2 sketches.

Another SketchCrawl day and another one alone. I didn't know whether to participate or not as I can't access the site here in Sudan, Check the SketchCrawl forum to find the work of other crawlers from today. Or the flickr group, which is where I will have to post. SketchCrawls are days of drawing around the city and were started in San Francisco by Enrico Casarosa in 2004.

I started the day doing a quick sketch whilst waiting for friends to pick me up. Across the road are two stalls for the ladies who sell peanuts etc., but unfortunately it was too early for them to be there. I spent the morning with 3 non-drawing friends and was not brave enough to get out my sketchbook, so my next drawing was of my lunch back in the hotel.

Next, I sat on the stairs and sketched the emergency exit; I hope there isn't an emergency as it will be difficult to get out. It is very, very hot today (around 43c), and I found I couldn't sit there for long. I'm not sure why the cleaners have left a partially filled bin-bag in their mop bucket, but it made a more interesting subject.

Finally, I just popped to the supermarket and sat on a shop step - ouch it was hot - and did this 5 minute sketch of two peanut/seed/henna sellers sitting beside the road. It was still too hot at 7pm to draw any longer. My Crawl has finished where it started with these street stands.

EDiM - #9 Organised chaos (2 versions) & Ozone people

I have swopped challenges 8 & 9 as there were good opportunities today. Looking out of the window I saw some construction guys removing tape from a building, eight and nine storeys high: a perfect example of organised chaos.

 

Then version 2 is of my rubbish bin as the cleaner doesn't come on Friday and had got filled with plastic bottles, T-bags and tissues. I don't normally drink Pepsi, but when I came home from my dance class on Thursday I was desperate for some sugar aka false energy.

 

Finally, whilst waiting for friends in Ozone last night I tried to draw some people, but it was a bit too dark to see what I was sketching.

I am very pleased as I have completed the day's challenge (twice) and it is only 10am, so I better getting on with my marking, which is what I have been putting off.