Sketches from my vacation

Windmills in Bodrum, watercolor 24 x 17 cm

Here are a few small watercolours and sketches I made while I was spending time with family in Bulgaria. A few of them are from a week-long vacation in Turkey. It was a nice break. Unfortunately, too short, as all vacations...

In the bay of Bodrum, watercolor 24 x 17 cm

The bay of Bodrum, watercolor sketch

The Bodrum castle, watercolor 24 x 17 cm

Wild flowers, watercolor 23 x 30 cm

Bulgarian mountain view, watercolor 30 x 23 cm

Sunset, watercolor 27 x 17 cm

Vitosha, watercolor sketch

Tea Culture

These are several scenes from Turkey, where contrary to popular belief, the national drink is tea, not coffee. You can buy this strong black tea in a small curvy glass practically everywhere - from restaurants and cafes to road-side boots. And everyone there drinks it. I quite liked its taste and still make it at home now and then.
In the small towns men do not gather at the pub, but rather at the tea house. This is where they discuss politics and the latest football game while playing backgammon.

The Tea House 1, watercolor 38 x 28 cm

The Tea House 2, watercolor 38 x 28 cm

Serving tea, watercolor sketch

Two men, watercolor sketch

The Grand Bazaar

Kapali Carsi 2, watercolor on Arches CP, 38 x 28 cm

Kapali Carsi, charcoal sketch

The busy galleries of Kapali Carsi - the grand bazaar in Istanbul - is not an easy subject. I wanted to convey the abundance of shapes and colors without getting bogged down in fussy details. So, I started with a charcoal sketch to establish the areas of light and dark. Then painted it a couple of times. This is the second version, which came out a bit fresher and with better positioning of the figures, but not significantly different from the first version. As it happens usually when I repaint something, there is a different picture in my head, but my hands keep doing the same thing all over again.

Below is the first attempt

Kapali Carsi 1, watercolor on Arches CP, 38 x 28 cm

Antalya's old harbor

Antalya's Old Harbor, watercolor on arches cp, 55 x 30 cm

I have been planning to paint this view for a while now, but I was a little scared by the complexity of all these houses and boats. I had to find a way to simplify them to textures, suggesting the actual objects. After doing a small size study, I had a more clear idea how to go about it. I also used a limited palette of only three colors - prussian blue, indian yellow and quinacridone red. This simplified things, but made it a bit harder to get the dark mixes. Overall, I think that it gives an idea of what a picturesque place this is, with the old Roman port and the Turkish blue waters. (Although, as my husband jokes, I used the wrong "nationality" of blue to depict them.)

Dervish dance 2

Dancing Dervishes, watercolor, 30 x 23 cm

Dancing Dervish, watercolor, 35 x 25 cm

My Muse, had disappeared somewhere lately, scared by the stress and frustrations at work, I guess. I tried to find her, by revisiting this subject, which I did before in pastel. The bottom one follows the pastel version quite closely, but I made a mess of the background. The top one was done without any drawing or expectations and I think I like it better.
Have a lovely weekend, everyone!

Rug sale

The rug, watercolor on arches paper, 50 x 40 cm

I have been planning to paint this scene for a while. Its challenge is in the rug. I wanted it to be the focal point, so I had to put enough detail in it. Yesterday I had a whole day off, and decided to give it a try. There is much to be desired. For example, I could have thought over the colors of the surrounding objects to create a better contrast. But on the other hand, this is my first painting with this large size, so I'm happy with it.

Dervish dance

Dervish dance, dry pastel on paper

At an old caravansary in Capadocia we attended an authentic Dervish ceremony. Photographing was not allowed, so I made a number of sketches during the beautiful dance of gentle movement and swirling white skirts. I have been planning to use these sketches as a reference for a painting, in which to capture the movement, but so far I didn't have a clear idea how to do that. Until a couple of days ago when I saw Lydie's pastel of a gymnast and it led me to the ArtTutor lesson on depicting movement.

I decided to try this in pastel first, as it is easiest to stick close to the lesson, even though I have no experience with pastels. I like the result, I think it has much movement in it and I think I know how this could turn into a watercolor too.

The library at Ephesus

Library at Ephesus, Arches, 36 x 28 cm

Here is another site from my Turkish tour. Ephesus must be the most visited place in Turkey, and the facade of the library - it's most beautiful structure.

This was a pretty complex subject and while drawing it, I was thinking "This has to turn out well, as I am not drawing it again!"  And then, of course, forget looseness and spontaneity... So, the bottom line, I don't much enjoy complex architectural subjects. They are a challenge, but not the type of challenge, from which I learn. Not for now, at least...

The red house

The red house, Arches 28 x 38 cm

Another scene from the streets of old Ankara, Turkey.

In old Ankara and experiments with Yupo

In old Ankara, Arches 28 x 38 cm

Ever since I started following the blog of Mineke Reinders I've wanted to visit Ankara and see its old parts with the small streets and wooden houses. We didn't have much time to spend there during our trip, but still manged to walk around a bit and snap a few photos.

This style of houses was very common in Bulgaria too in the past centuries, so there are a number of towns, where this architecture is preserved and restored.

The piece below is my first attempt to paint on Yupo paper. What a funny experience! The paint would just refuse to adhere to the paper and would retract into puddles. And to make things worse, in the middle of the sheet I saw round shapes of white paper forming, as if there was wax-resist. Then a number of letters took shape, reading "do it on Yupo". I realized, that the print from the cover of the Yupo pad has somehow changed the properties of the surface of this first sheet. Maybe I should have washed it with soap, if I knew. Anyway, I think I inadvertently ended up with a winter version of the above scene. And with the loosest painting I've ever done. My husband just laughed when he saw it and said "This should sell for a fortune!"

On Yupo!?

Hagia Sophia

Hagia Sophia, Arches 38 x 28 cm

I got a little lost in all the architectural details above.

And another attempt at the Istanbul skyline, this time with reflections in the water, that make it look like a smooth lake. But I wanted to see how it looks this way...

Istanbul skyline, Arches 40 x 30 cm

Istanbul, watercolor and HomeSense...

I tried painting this view a few times, and the less detail I put in the more I liked it. I may try it again later.

Sunset on the Bosphorus, Arches 40 x 30 cm

Here's a story from last weekend. While doing one of our favorite city walks, we stumbled upon an Arts-and-crafts show at Toronto's Kew gardens. I was immediately attracted by a display of magnificent watercolors. Expressive portraits of people of different walks of life and beautiful city scenes in an exciting fusion of primary colors. Some figures and views reminded us strongly of our recent trip. I started chatting with the artists and it turned out that they are Asuman and Atanur Dogan - a couple of Turkish-Canadian watercolorists and sculptors. Both highly educated and very accomplished have held exhibits throughout the world. Asuman paints mostly landscapes and city scenes in her very own style of loose washes and contrasting colors. Her husband, Atanur, paints mostly figures and portraits. One of them, an old fisherman, completely captivated me.

While we were enjoying the paintings, talking with my husband about the unjust advantage that snobby attitudes give to oil in comparison to watercolor, two ladies approached.
"I like these very much!" said the first, pointing to the paintings.
"Yes, they are beautiful. But these things are not in style now. You should go to HomeSense to see the current style!" replied the second. (For those who don't know, HomeSense sells wall decorations along with its off-price home furnishing and kitchen ware.)
And I was worrying about the fate of watercolor vs. oil!

This little event made me realize how hard it must be to make a living with art, even if you are really good. And it made me admire these two people even more, and the others like them. They are apparently very skillful and versatile and could work in any medium, but they have chosen to stick to the one they are passionate about. They not only create, but also actively work towards popularizing watercolor and bringing together all watercolor artists through societies and events. I am so glad that I met them and so proud that two of the big names in watercolors live in "my neck of the woods."

The Turkish landscape

I was hesitant to put this title, as I am hardly capable of depicting the beauty of the nature I saw. My first pleasant surprise in Turkey was the beautiful and diverse landscape. For some reason I've allways thought that once crossing the Bosphorus,  you enter the arid desert of the Anatolian plateau. This is so far from the truth. There are luscious green valleys surrounded by high mountains, whose peaks were still covered with snow. It was a delight to watch the lovely pattern of differently colored agricultural fields - some freshly plowed and exposing the orange-reddish soil, while the others ranging  through all shades of green and yellow.

The view was changing too fast from the bus window, so I was trying to capture it with my camera. I must be the owner of the largest number of photos of road-side posts and shrubs. You know how these always manage to get into the frame, while you try to focus on something in the distance.

Here are a few of my attempts to transform those landscapes into watercolors.

The Meander valley, Arches 35 x 18 cm

Snow-capped mountains near Bursa, Arches 40 x 30 cm

Near Bursa, Arches 35 x 25 cm

Olive garden, Arches 40 x 25 cm