A Moroccan Adventure: Ouarzazate and around.

*

People in the street, oil on card, 14 x 15 cm   SOLD

I spent a week in Ouarzazate, a serene place, with clear light, known for film studios, and as a gateway to the Atlas Mountains.

There seems to be no advertising at all, and few cars, which made me feel as if I were in an old Eastern European city in Communist times. The shops do not have elaborate signs or names either. This helps lend the place its peculiarly calm feeling. Here and there people sell things in the street: shoes, tools, magazines, but the streets are wide and clean, and calm. The buildings usually open flush onto to street, without gardens or porches, and are particularly boxy. Almost everything is peach coloured, including the pavements, some of which are painted thus.

Clouds, oil on card, 15 x 15.5 cm   SOLD

 Near the mosque, oil on card, 12.5 x 15.5 cm  SOLD

 A shop selling bric-a-brac, oil on card, 13.5 x 16.5  SOLD

A boy with a scooter, oil on card, 17 x 17.5 cm

This above, and the piece opening this posting were both painted from my hotel window and seem very de Chirico-an to me.

Mosque on a plain, oil on card, 13.4 x 16.4  SOLD

View of the mountains, oil on card, 12.5 x 15.5 cm   SOLD

I hired a little car (very cheap!) and drove into a mountain valley, entering through Ait Benhaddou and returning via Telhouet. This region is very dry, having suffered from droughts, and where vegetation appears it is almost surreally bright.

A distant ksar, valley near Ouarzazate, oil on card, 14 x 16 cm

Boys playing football, village near Ouarzazate, oil on card, 16.5 x 17.5 cm  SOLD

I can become sentimental at the sight of children playing football in empty patches of earth all over the world, from Brazil to North Africa: an international game, spontaneously and freely organised by children themselves, happily, without supervision, at minimal cost and one in which disputes  are usually amicably resolved. This can be taken as a rebuke against the regimented world of the British child.

A gorge, oil on card 16 x 16 cm            AVAILABLE

Valley, oil on card, 18 x 15 cm  - available

The mountains are big, the pictures are not, and I began to sense the limits of the small scale I use, which is better at intimacy than grandeur, better at the small and enclosed world of towns than vast spaces. On the other hand, this may be simply a question of personality: after All Turner succeeded with describing the epic in tiny watercolours, and it could be then that my nature is simply unsuited to grand themes.

A ksar, oil on card, 16 x 14 cm   unavailable

*

These paintings are available through this art dealer, based in central London:

ROSE ISSA PROJECTS

82 Great Portland Street London W1W 7NW 

T 0207 602 7700. T 0207 323 1710

 E info@roseissa.com


*

A Moroccan Adventure: Marrakesh

*

Marrakesh is quite flat, dusty, peach coloured and dry. The buildings are low and the layout is incredibly confusing: there are few street signs; the souks are labyrinthine and there are no high buildings to use as visual references.

So getting lost is inevitable. But as the city is not enormous this is no great tragedy.

When I arrived in late February there were few tourists and it was most enjoyable, a month later it mas much too crowded and had a somewhat frenetic atmosphere. The city has few cars; and many artisan workshops and provides endless subject matter for painting.

I was hassled much less frequently, and less aggressively in Morocco than in my trips to Tunisia and Egypt where both trips were marred by people pestering me with offers of camel rides, hotels, taxis and items for sale.

I love painting from roofs, and from above, the falcon`s view:

 From the hotel roof, oil on card, 11.5 x 15 cm  NOT FOR SALE




This was taken by Gallery 5595 in lieu of commission for the Porty Art Walk exhibition with Jane Rutherford. Others went to  Rose Issa.

From the hotel roof  (with mosque), oil on card, 14 x 15.5 cm  available

The city is very coherent aesthetically, with very cubic, peach or ochre buildings, nearly all two or three stories at most, everything dusty or bruised:

Building with a phone box, oil on card, 17.5 x 15.2 cm   SOLD

A lane, oil on card, 16 x 15.5 cm   SOLD

This was sold as part of the Artists Support Pledge Scheme in June 2020

A yard, oil on card, 13.5 x 16.5 cm -  available

 A yard, above, makes me think of Guston, rather.

There was a successful run of paintings of Marrakesh`s huge market square:

 Cart and market, oil on card, 14.5 x 15.5 cm

This, above, is one of the best pictures I have ever done, I think.

Little mosque in the market square, oil on card, 14.5 x 15.5 cm   SOLD

 Marrakesh with the mountains beyond, oil on card, 15.5 x 13 cm  SOLD

Market, oil on card, 15.5 x 18 cm

Marrakesh is well served by parks and gardens:

Entrance to a park, oil on card, 14 x 17 cm - unavailable

There are endless shops and artisanal workshops, all wonderful for painting. Marrakesh is touristy, but much less mediated than places in Europe, and therefore considerably more alive.

Some shops, oil on card, 15.2 x 18 cm - available

A street near the hotel, oil on card, 13.5 x 18.5 cm - unavailable

Street selling cloth, oil on card, 15.5 x 12.5 cm  - available

A brickyard, oil on card, 14.5 x 15.5 cm   SOLD

*

Back from Morocco.

I am back in Brazil after almost six weeks of travel, mainly in Morocco, but also with some days in the UK.

The Moroccan part consisted of week long stays in Marrakesh, Ouarazazate, Taroudant, and Sidi Ifni, with the following results:

Morocco:the complete set

The complete set again, in perspective

Marrakesh, a brickyard, in its carrier.

The pictures are transported in carriers, above. There are very few pictures which were at all damaged. I`ve worked steadily to improve them, making them deeper so that the picture surfaces aren`t marred when closing. And I standardised their sizes so that they are easier to pack and take up less space, even though the pictures are on average about 20% larger than on previous trips.        

One of the advantages of staying longer in each place on a trip is that the surfaces of paintings have time to dry before the carriers are closed. I`ve thought of using acrylics, which takes much less time to dry than oil, but have always found it to be an ugly paint, lacking in depth of colour.

I shall post the pictures according to place over the next week, in five posts.

Preparing for Morocco

I've tried to improve the carriers by standardising their sizes so they can be packed more easily, and increasing their depth so paintings are less likely to be damaged when they are closed. I`ve also made the interior sections black, to better show finished paintings. I have increased the average size of the boards to allow me to paint in a freer, looser style.

I`ll stay in Marrakesh for a week, then head off to the Atlas mountains, probably Ouarzazate, before returning to spend a week or so in the UK.

I`m hoping that the locals aren`t as annoying as they were in Egypt, where they harass tourists almost constantly. If they aren`t, and Morocco proves good for painting, I might consider spending longer there in future-  Brazil in summer is really too hot to go outside much, and the country tends to come to a standstill between Christmas and Carnival- I find this tedious.

 

A tree, Praça dos Bombeiros

*

A tree, Praça dos Bombeiros, oil on card, 14.5 x 16 cm  - available

Painted in the centre , under Eastern influences.

Portrait of an American friend

*

Portrait of an American friend, oil on card, 14 x 16.2 cm -  available

A picture from a session this morning. I will have another session later this week, hopefully. I am not sure how accurate it is It owes owe something to Cezanne.

*

Many thanks to Davinder Chandhok for his patience.


*

Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2014, submission

Flowers from Brazil, oil on card 15 x 18 cm  - available

Under the tracks, Astoria Boulevard, oil on card 14.5 x 10.5 cm

My submissions for this year`s summer exhibition. Fingers crossed that they will be accepted. It`s always difficult to choose things for this sort of show: one simply cannot know what their criteria are. Perhaps one year they will be keen on showing smaller works, another more traditional things and so forth. Or perhaps there are pre-determined, but unknown criteria about different media.

 I tend to think that it`s better not to try to second-guess the judges and just show work that you feel reasonably confident with.