Santo Antonio, sketch of trees

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Santo Antonio, sketch of trees, oil on card, 16 x 18 cm  - available

Bolivia

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BOLIVIA

Bolivia: the following seems likely: get from the Brazillian border city of Puerto Suarez to Santa Cruz by train, subsequently bus to La Paz, then further buses to Potosi and Sucre.

It strikes me that the parts of Bolivia that will be most interesting will be in the south west, because the Amazonian part will, most likely, be quite similar to Brazil. In any case, one cannot go everywhere.  I am dreading these long bus journeys.

Santo Antônio de Lisboa, April, 2014; Bolivia

Santo Antônio de Lisboa, April, 2014, oil on card, 15.5 x 17 cm - unavailable

This time of year, Autumn can be great for painting here. It isn`t so damn hot, and there is often a fine, silvery and somewhat melancholy light, both clear and subtle.

I`ve painted from virtually exactly this spot before. I like revisiting places and seeing how they have changed, and comparing my reactions with before.

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I`ve booked flights to Bolivia- or rather, Campo Grande, from where I get a bus to the border. I`ll be there for just under a month, in July. I`d rather have flown direct to La Paz, but the air fares to there were extortionate. 

I have still to figure out my Bolivian itinerary. The lesson of previous trips is that one should not try to see everything, and that for painting it`s wiser to stay in fewer places, and get to know them, then spend one`s time rushing about just tick sights off a list.

 

Saachi

I am selling some work through Saachi now, but you can still contact me directly through Facebook if you are interested in buying any paintings- it makes no difference and will be cheaper as there would be no commissions to pay: http://www.saatchiart.com/profiles/portfolio/id/115898/p/2

London

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Horseguards Parade, the lonely civil servant goes home, oil on card, 11 x 15 cm  

Before returning to Brazil, I spent a couple of days wandering about in the strange fog that descended over London a week ago, which made it quite triste and nineteenth century.
 
 

Near St James's Palace, oil on card, 12.5 x 14 cm  available

St Mary le Strand, oil on card, 12.5 x 15 cm   AVAILABLE

Crimea Memorial, oil on card, 14.5 x 12.5 cm   SOLD



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 Thanks


Many thanks to John, Alison and Fred for their generous hospitality in London.


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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.

A Moroccan Adventure: Taroudant

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Gates, oil on card, 12.5 x 12.5   available

Taroudant is a nice old town with a leafy central square, in which snake charmers and story tellers appear at night. It`s well preserved with gates and walls almost intact, and a fine old ksar. As with the other places I saw in Morocco the mosques did not really stand out. There appears to be a standard form, with a square tower and a cupula, and this was repeated wherever I went.

 A lane, oil on card, oil on card, 12.5 x 15.5 cm  SOLD

               

One could pass a lifetime happily painting just shops in Morocco.

 Toilet attendant, oil on card, 12 x 14 cm  SOLD

This picture, above, is quite in the vein of Ardizzone, the British illustrator, whose sketchbooks are so lively.

A street along the walls, oil on card, 14 x 15 cm  SOLD

 A quiet street, oil on card, 15.5 x 13.5 cm

Wasteland, housing, oil on card, 12.5 x 15.5 cm

The city is expanding with building work here and there both inside and on the outskirts.

 Argan tree, oil on card, 12 x 15 cm  SOLD

The locals use bicycles a lot, whizzing past quite fearsomely in the narrow streets. I hired an old roadster and went on a little wander out of town. The landscape undulates nicely with olive groves.

A view of some tree, oil on card, 12.5 x 13 cm - unavailable

 An avenue, oil on card, 12.5 x 15 cm

 A view from the walls, oil on card, 15 x 13.5 cm  unavailable

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 Thanks

I must thank the kind Moroccan gentleman, whose name I shamefully forget, who bought me dinner and breakfast when he saw that my bank card was consumed by a cash machine and I thought the world was about to end. And I must also thank  Martin and Rea from Germany, who gave me cash to get me through the weekend, and took me for dinner too, and were delightful company besides. And thanks, of course, to my parents for wiring me some money and thus saving my skin.

Moral: have kind parents, or, when traveling, carry some cash, and never depend entirely on plastic.

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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