Still in Egypt...

Actually, it has been two years since that trip, but for some reason scenes from it keep popping in my mind...

Pharaoh head at Abu Simbel

This head is of one of the four gigantic sitting Pharaohs at the facade of the Abu Simbel temple The height of  this head is equivalent to about two human heights. It is actually a complex of two temples, which were carved directly into the rock of the river bank. To prevent loosing them forever under the waters of the Aswan dam, in 1968 the temples were cut into pieces, tens of tons each, and rebuilt on a higher ground. For me, this is a fascinating engineering achievement, almost as amazing as the archaeological monuments themselves.

The bank of the Nile

Another fascinating thing for me was to realize that the country is only a few meters wide, if you exclude the Nile delta of course. Yes, it is huge on the map, but in reality, the only inhabitable part is the fertile shores of the Nile, which vary in width from just a few meters to a few hundred meters. Beyond that is a desert without a single blade of grass.

Philae temple

Egyptian sunsets

Sun raises over Luxor

The other bank at sunset

Sunset on the Nile

I love painting sunsets, as they involve mostly wet-in-wet. This should help me get back on track with painting, after exhausting few weeks at work...

A nubian man

Another watercolor version of a previous pencil sketch. This is based on a photo of a felucca sailor in Aswan. The boat trip took place at sunset and the light was spectacular.  I have been saving this picture in my pile of reference photos, in case I ever learn to do portraits. I never thought I would have so much fun painting it. I am happy that I managed to reproduce the dreamy expression on the man's face. I think I need to do some more work with my colors for a dark complexion, though. So, back to Charles Reid's books!

Egypt

Temple in Edfu (n/a)

 A year ago we managed to fulfill an old dream - to take a trip to Egypt and see many of the archeological sites left by the oldest advanced civilization. It was amazing to see first hand the scale of that architecture and to get so close to the source of so many exciting stories and riddles. Seeing what is happening lately in that country, I've been wondering if we "took the last train"...
Before I painted the temple scene, I watched the video demos on Trevor Lingard's blog, which helped me with both the buildings and the figures. I am so grateful for all the watercolor blogs, from which I can take example and learn.

Luxor at night

We visited this temple a year ago in the evening. It was lit by projectors that made the color of the sandstone glow in warm hues.I expected the night picture to be a challenge, but it didn't turn out terribly bad.