El Jadida: Manazgan wall

 *

El Jadida: Mazagan, wall, oil on card 24.9 x 20.7 cm- available

Painted just outside Manazgan. 

I think such very simple compositions might reward black and white.

*

Morocco: El Jadida: two paintings

 *

El Jadida, Mazagan, arched doorway, oil on card 25 x 21 cm - available

El Jadida, Mazagan, from the walls, oil on card 25 x 21 cm - available

El Jadida

This town is a beach town. There isn`t much to do except stroll along the beach, visit the innumerable shops selling clothes or bric a brac or sit, with dozens of black or grey clad men in the cafes- of which there are an amazing quantity- facing the street.

 Parts of the town are well kept but large sections are damp and somehow the place makes me feel a bit depressed.

Colour and Black and White

My return to colour makes me realise how much more difficult plein air painting is colour is. The range of feeling produced when you use colour is much more varied, so the final painting speaks with less singularity.

The psychological effect of colourlessness is ore profound. But my process and technique is almost the same as when I`m working in colour.

*

El Jadida: door and windows

 *

El Jadida

El Jadida: Mazagan, door and windows

 21.4 x 24.5 cm, oil on card, available

This was the third place on our tour. 

It has an odd feel about it: unfinished, sometimes quite slummy at other times aspiring with new, very anonymous blocks along the seafront to the east, along with fast food joints and a cinema, all oriented towards car users. The town centre is full of shops selling bric-a-brac, cheap clothing and, not to mince words, rubbish. There are innumerable cafes which seem to be occupied by men in black or brown clothes doing very little except occasionally using their cell phones.

There are restaurants serving piles of fried seafood We ate at one and I`m not sure I`d recommend the experience. The seafood is cooked in batter like British fish and chips but had an appalling greasiness about it. The service was needlessly hurried and brusque.

Mazagan 

Mazagan is a walled enclave by the sea, with a church and other Portuguese  architecture, and tourist oriented shops and cafes. I enjoyed painting here.

*