Stop-over sketches

 Rustem Pasha Mosque, A5 sketchbook © Sue Pownall

My flight home from Italy was first back to Barcelona then via Istanbul. As I had a 10 hour stop-over in Istanbul, I met up with one of my favourite arty people Samantha. She blogs at Harika and is an urbansketcher. Also, with us was Pedro, an illustrator from Portugal (I forgot to get his site address). We spent most of the time in the Taksim area of Istanbul, in a café drinking Turkish tea, chatting, and of course sketching. My drawing is a composite as people came and went.

Firuzağa Çay Bahçesi A5 sketchbook © Sue Pownall

This is what our table looked like minus a few tea glasses.

Firuzağa Çay Bahçesi © Sue Pownall

When we finally left the café, we walked through the narrow streets of Taksim and down to the river to have fresh fish for lunch. We crossed the river into the Fatih district and after lunch wandered around for something else to draw. I had only my little point-and-shoot Olympus with me, which needs throwing away!!! However, I did get one good shot (below).

© Sue Pownall

We chose to draw at the Rustem Pasha Mosque and tiredness made me shy away from tackling anything to detailled or difficult, so I drew two colourful tourists having a rest before visiting the mosque. (top)

More random stuff

 SQ Grand Mosque © Sue Pownall 2012

It's that time of year when I hit exhausted, which here in the Gulf is not helped by the heat - officially 48c as I type. It can't 'officially' go over 50 because work has to stop, this crazy temperature is NOT the reality. Feels like 41? No way more like feels like 51!!!!

Anyway it's been a strange few weeks. After the radio interview, which I shared in my last post, I was interviewed about my sketching for Y Magazine. The edition came out last Tuesday and below is the double page spread. The Pdf is here: http://www.y-oman.com/issues/224.pdf

With both the radio and the magazine interviews focusing on my sketching I thought I should do some, so on Sunday I went to Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque. I was meeting a friend there who had never been. I arrived early in order to do the outside scene; sat in my car out of the heat of course. Top and below.

© Sue Pownall 2012

Whilst my friend wandered around, I found a spot to sit on the carpet and tried to capture some of the beauty of the mosque. However a quick sketch can hardly do it justice, so I must return with a whole morning to spare.

© Sue Pownall 2012

Finally, as my friend listened to a man talk about the mosque and Islam, I spent a couple of minutes trying to get an impression of the chandelier.

© Sue Pownall 2012

Drawing in an A5 sketchbook can only begin to capture it because:

The largest chandelier known in the world, weighs 8.5 tons. Made of Swarovski crystal, has gold plated metalwork, and hangs down for a length of 14 meters.  Source Ministry of Information & Swarovski Architecture.

******

My summer newsletter is about to arrive in inboxes, have you subscribed? 

There is a special offer for subscribers only.

Sharjah Biennial

Friday prayers, Pen & ink, A5 sketchbook. ©Sue Pownall 2011

Reminded that Sharjah's Art Biennial was on and inspired to go by Omar Jaramillo's post Sharjah on his fabulous blog Omar Paint I booked a flight to UAE. I reached my hotel room as Friday prayers were taking place in the mosque opposite and I was amazed at how many people were listening to the cleric: he must be very good. Check out the photo below, which shows people stretched across the road in order to be at that particular mosque.

Click to enlarge and see cars driving around the Sharjah worshippers.

Initial lines of mosque

I grabbed my sketchbook for my 2nd sketch of the day as I wanted to capture the masses, even though I was looking down on them from the 14th floor. The small pic right shows how little of the mosque I drew in initially, hence the squiffy perspective when I tried to complete it later, as I concentrated on the rows of people and outlining parked cars. I took a few photos as I knew I did not have long to capture the scene, but managed to finish the people before prayers ended. I then drew the rest of the mosque. I intended to add watercolour later, but changed rooms due to the noisy (young children) in the adjoining room. I'm happy with it without the colour.

In true urban sketchers fashion, my first sketch of the day had been at Doha airport as I waited for my flight in Coffee Beanery. I was attracted to a family sitting across from me. It was only as I was sketching the lady on the right, as the last of the figures in the group, that I realised that she had a child asleep on her lap. Sketching really does allow us to see the world and live in it rather than just move through it oblivious to what is going on around us. After the family, a Qatari guy sat down with his OJ and newspaper, so I just had to sketch him too.

Coffee Beanery, Doha Airport ©Sue Pownall 2011

Being Friday, I had a rest after the mosque sketch and waited for the Sharjah museums to open at 4pm before I could I head out to explore. Sharjah is a very visitor-friendly city being small and easy to walk around, although the heat makes it difficult (Saturday morning was 36°c at 10am). Gaining a great guidebook to the Biennial at Sharjah Art Museum I wandered around a lot of the 10 Biennial sites absorbing the art. I am not a great fan of video installations, possibly because I am too impatient to watch for long, however throughout the sites were Judith Barry's Cairo stories, which were very watchable narratives. In the Sharjah Art museum, I was pleased to see that the Orientalist collection had not been removed for the event and got to see the wonderful lithographs of David Roberts and John Keppie's watercolours among others.

Arriving at the Heritage area, I was pleased but surprised to see the Heritage Days event (similar to the Muscat Festival) was still on. All posters and flags said it finished on the 18th and as it was the 22nd I expected it to be over. I tried to draw some of the people, but I gathered crowds watching me, as 1 of only 4 non-locals there perform - maybe I was on the program? When some musicians and dancers started to perform I abandoned the sketch and drew them instead, again with a vast crowd of onlookers. From the Heritage Days, I thought it was time to head back to the hotel and walked along the Corniche, which was quite pretty if you ignored the port on the other side of the creek, but there was a strong oil smell, so I crossed back into the city to wander through the streets. I got back to the hotel just before 8pm tired from the unaccustomed walking, pleased with my sketches and sated from the glut of art and culture.

Emirati musicians and dancers. Pen & ink, A5 sketchbook. ©Sue Pownall 2011

The following morning, I headed back out after a nice buffet breakfast to find the Calligraphy museum. I walked miles out of my way and was aided by a Yemeni young man to the museum. Unfortunately, unlike the Orientalists, all calligraphy had been removed for the duration of the Bieannial. I found an interesting old school, now a museum, and an old house (Bait Al Naboodah), which had belonged to a pearl merchant, to visit, and I also saw some more of the Biennial and the souqs. On setting out in the morning, I had intended to do some watercolours however, as mentioned above, it was too hot to stop for long even in the shade and I did not do any quick pen sketches either. I did take quite a few photos though, but will save them for another post.

An experiment

After the rain. Calligraphy ink and Pen & ink. 400 x 200mm.©Sue Pownall 2011

WIP Reflection for After the rain.

Having lived in Doha for a while now, I felt I needed to do something more than sketches from here, so back in February I started fiddling with this drawing. It is an experiment based on the idea for the blue ink, which I haven't attempted yet. Initially I was going to ink the sky blue to balance the water but the problem is we don't, generally, have clouds here in Doha and I wanted a vignette effect. I did the reflection first as it was the most scary part. I've been staring at it untouched for nearly 2 weeks now and although I haven't signed it I am counting it as finished - for now.

What do you think, is it finished? Do you think the mix of styles works?

Finally, I want to apologise to everyone who's work I follow regularly, and to
those I pop into for not visiting your blogs recently. I am now limiting my internet time in order to focus on producing finished artwork and to promote myself. For example, I now have a facebook page specifically for finished artwork, which is updated regularly. I will try and visit everyone at least once a week, and please forgive me this neglect. Thank you for your understanding.

I've been given an award on flickr

Magrib prayer at my local mosque
Originally uploaded by travelingsuep

I'm very flattered to have been given an award for this picture

"Congratulations! Your photo has received the Amber Award from FotoVotr. It has been selected from the Flickr community because of its interest and popularity. For more information, please visit the FotoVotr Amber Group. We would be honored to have you join us!"

Migraine induced meltdown mitigated by mosque's Magrib prayer.

In the early hours of Sunday, I awoke with the worst migraine imaginable. At 7am, I crawled into the shower when my head-splitting alarm went off after a sleepless night. With the room spinning and the light causing intense nausea I called in sick and returned to bed. Generally, I am happy with my own company, but feeling sick, alone, and with Muslim restrictions meaning friends couldn't visit me in my rooms, not even to drop off Panadol, resulted in some very childish tears, which didn't help. 

A day later, having gone to work to be told I looked dreadful (I knew that), that evening whilst still feeling the after effects of the migraine I sketched my local mosque. I started at sunset with the Magrib call for prayer and it swiftly got dark. I love the fluorescent green tubes around the minaret and used a highlighter pen to try to get them to stand out, as they do in the night sky. Being pleased with the results, and loving the sound that came from the mosque, I felt a smile return.

I forgot to post the sketch above from Friday evening. Whilst waiting for a friend, I did this quick sketch of some Sudanese women watching their children playing. I had my coloured pens on me as I had intended to sketch the England match. The colour on the tree was added later, as it is such a distinctive colour here I wanted to record it accurately.