Morocco: Sidi Ifni: 3. three lighter paintings of architecture

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Sidi Ifni: three lighter paintings of architecture 

Sidi Ifni, Town centre, 29.2 x 30 cm, oil on card, available

Sidi Ifni, A view, oil on card 28.8 x 24.5, available

Sidi Ifni, A wall, gates, oil on card, 30.2 x 24.5 cm, available

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Morocco: Sidi Ifni: 2. three darker paintings

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 Sidi Ifni: three darker paintings

Sidi Ifni, Radio Antenna, blocks, oil on card, 27.2 x 23.2 cm, available

Sidi Ifni, seafront, oil on card, 27.2 x 23.2 cm, available

Sid Ifni, A block, oil on card, 21.1 x 24.9 cm, available

I continued to work in this smoky style, using a mixture of Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Umber to create a sort of black.

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Morocco: Sidi Ifni: 1. two paintings of the hills beyond

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Sidi Ifni: two paintings of the hills beyond 

Sidi Ifni, A road, oil on card, 27 x 24.5 cm, available

Sidi Ifni, View from a rise 24.5 x 20.7 cm, available

The town is every bit as lovely as I remember it: clean, quiet and friendly. 

The sea is very alive and is popular with surfers.

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Winter in Spain and Morocco- more details

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Winter in Spain and Morocco- more details

We leave in about six weeks, to visit. in sequence:

Marrakesh,

Sidi Ifni

Essaouira (probably)

El Jadida (probably)

Meknes

Tangier

Seville

Valencia

The weather here in Aberdeen has turned sharply colder, and it isn`t easy to go out comfortably.  Scotland in Winter is quite inhospitable. Moreover, the fact that I hate Christmas makes spending December in an Islamic country extremely appealing.

Northern Morocco tends to be rainy in the Winter, so we will spend most of our days in the Atlantic coast.

While in Morocco we stay in hotels, in Spain we have rented apartments. 

I`m getting boards ready: I`m thinking about continuing in black and white, at least for part of the trip.

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Roofs, Sidi Ifni and A view from the Necropolis, Glasgow, framed

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Roofs, oil on card, 12.2 x 15.5 cm, framed  SOLD

 A view from the Necropolis, Glasgow, oil on card, 13 x 18 cm, framed  SOLD

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A Moroccan Adventure: Sidi Ifni; conclusions

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Sidi Ifni is an old Spanish town, notable for its collection of white and blue Art deco(-ish) buildings, and good state of preservation, and its fine location on a ridge overlooking the sea.

I did a good deal of my work there from the hotel, which had excellent views across the town and beyond.

Headland, oil on card, 14 x 16 cm - unavailable

Fort, oil on card, 12 x 15 cm - damaged, unavailable

A view from the hotel roof, oil on card, 12.5 x 14.5 cm  - available

This, above, has some affinities with C. R. Mackintosh's French watercolours.

Roofs, oil on card, 12.2 x 15.5 cm  SOLD

People in the street, oil on card, 12.5 x 12.5 cm

And this, above, is quite related to the Ourzazate street pictures. I am attempting a more fluent, almost cartoonish, method of brush handling, which I have been attempting to import from Chinese painting.

 A caravan park, oil on card, 17.5 x 17 cm

 There are a couple from my wanderings around the town too:

A man working in a smallholding, oil on card, 13.5 x 15 cm  SOLD

A terrace, oil on card, 12.3 x 15 cm  SOLD

Sidi Ifni, oil on card, 12.5 x 15 cm  SOLD

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That brings to a close my offerings from Morocco.

There are a few weaker pieces, but that is always to be expected given my methods: I work plein air, and  do not make sketches beforehand. I am not a studio painter: I enjoy the element of risk that comes from working directly from motifs outside, and I enjoy being directly exposed to places.  And I tend to philosophise that without failures there would be no triumphs anyway.

It is always hard to make a fair assessment of ones own work, especially when little time has passed since their execution, but I feel the percentage of duds is low, and of good ones high, and that compared to previous North African trips to Tunisia and Egypt, this set is larger and more assured. The colours are more confidently handled and the pictures are bigger.

Partly this success is simply due to knowing which subjects to avoid- those which don`t suit the format, or motifs which, for whatever subjective reasons, don`t quite suit me. In addition, Morocco is a relatively easy place to visit and work in: more relaxed and, I sensed, more at ease with itself and with Europeans than either Egypt or Tunisia.

With such reflections I am considering a second Moroccan Adventure next year, but this time going to Fez, Tangier, Meknes and the cypress forests just south of there.

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To see or buy paintings please visit this gallery:

 ROSE ISSA PROJECTS

82 Great Portland Street London W1W 7NW 

T 0207 602 7700. T 0207 323 1710

 E info@roseissa.com

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 Thanks

I must thank: parents, kind strangers, the amusing Dutch, German and British tourists who kept me company in various hotels, and of course Rose Issa for her encouragement.