Third pic in this series - Ramadan moon

Here is the third pic in this series - I am moving away from the original quite a lot with much heavier colours and less people. I think I'll try to move back in the other direction a bit. 

The woman is serving dates and tea to her family out in the dunes as the moon rises behind her. It is Iftar, which is the prayer time as the sun sets and the fast is broken during Ramadan.

Ramadan concludes with the sighting of the new moon and Eid is celebrated - this brings an end to fasting.

I realised I didn't put an explanation of the other 2 pieces so I will briefly revisit them.

This pic is about an Emirati wedding. The Bride and the groom are the central figures. The Grooms mother looks on in green while the parents and sisters of the bride discuss the groom and the arrangements. The colours used depict the very colourful women's wedding ceremonies while the men stay dressed in their traditional white. The background colours are those of the sand dunes near Al Ain in the eastern UAE near the Omani border.

These men are drinking coffee. It is almost a national pastime in the UAE. The coffee aromas are represented by the band that unites them.

Arabic Art - Memories of the UAE

I am holed up in my apartment in Nanjing with a very sore foot! Plantar fasciitis or a heel spur - or both - VERY PAINFUL! So I have started a series of paintings based on the drawings I mentioned in my last post. These drawings began to emerge at a painting session with Marion Davidson. Thanks Marion for your guidance and support and your encouragement to persist with them. I like them and will keep working this theme for a while and perhaps even see if they can be published as cards or postcards.


Please leave a comment to let me know if these paintings are commercially viable in your opinion!

Busy little globetrotter!

Since I posted the last article I have moved to China. After Vanuatu we did 2 years in the Middle East - United Arab Emirates - so I have a lot of catching up to do on this blog. Quite frankly I am getting a bit excited about this whole art thing so I am going to skip very quickly through those two years and just put up the paintings I did while there.

The first 2 pieces were inspired by the Moroccan style mosque near the Al Jimi Mall in Al Ain. I liked the geometrics and the colours. I am really attracted to this type of work.

I decided to apply the same principles to drawing flamingos. I don't like the product - it is clumsy and grubby, but I am learning about line and flow and colour and paper - so I have put them up and I will rework them one day to be more in line with my vision for them.

I had never painted people so one evening at a group I joined for practicing art I copied this lady from a magazine. And then on Mother's Day in 2008 when I was really missing my sons I painted the young boy knocking on the door to visit his mother. Because I was in the Emirates he is dressed in local costume.

There are a couple of people I want to thank for their input in the UAE. Rebecca Tilley, a young Australian woman who was teaching art at a school, had painting evenings where we went to her home and she gave us some lessons and left us to do our thing. They were lovely evenings and I really enjoyed them. Bec is also now in China and we are still friends and will collaborate more on art over our time here. Marion Davidson inspired me to begin a series of drawings and as time goes by you will see just how important her influence was. Thanks Bec and Marion, your love of art has inspired me to continue.