Daisy the Dog
10″ x 8″ Acrylic on card
Well, it’s been a week since I last posted anything although I’ve been doing loads of painting. Unfortunately only rolling several coats of sky blue antifouling paint onto the bottom of my boat! However, it’s finished now, until next year of course, and Daisy goes back in the water tomorrow. That’s the boat, not our Yorkshire Terrier who coincidentally shares the same name.
Armagnac Autumn with Lavender and Hay
15″ x 8″ Acrylic on card
A chat with Gina about the 2013 Spring/Summer fashion colours got me thinking about just how many neon colours there are in nature. Acid greens and yellows in Spring, vivid pink and orange sunsets, ocean blues and the violets and purples of distant hills. I suppose that’s why I am so dazzled by the Colourists and Impressionists who gave full expression to what lay right in front of them and how brave they were!
All that talk of food in my last post kept me in the mood for another French autumn picture. I can smell the lavender and hay and feel that luscious late heat coming off the well baked hills.
Armagnac Autumn. A Gascony landscape with vines and lavender.
13″ x 10″” Acrylic on card
Before we moved to Turkey we had an apartment on the Blv. des Pyrenees in the beautiful French town of Pau. When you drove south the road signs read like a wonderful menu, a litany of famous dishes, wines and culinary delights. Bayonne, Champagne, Camembert, Bourgogne, Evian, Dijon, Roquefort, Bordeaux, Armagnac, Ossau-Iraty ……
Turkish cuisines are regional too and although not quite as famous as their French counterparts they also represent the best and most abundant local ingredients and have a long history.
The cooking of Istanbul, Bursa, Izmir, and rest of the Aegean region shows Ottoman influences with a lighter use of spices, and a preference for rice. The cuisine of the Black Sea naturally uses fish especially the anchovy (hamsi) with Balkan and Slavic influences, and includes maize dishes. The cuisine of the southeast is famous for kebabs and dough-based desserts such as baklava and Kunefe. The cuisines of the Med are rich in vegetables, herbs, and fish while Central Anatolia has many famous specialties, such as kashkak, manti from Kayseri and gozleme (pancakes)
A specialty’s name sometimes includes that of a city or region, and often refer to the specific technique or ingredients used in that area. For example, the difference between an Urfa kebab and Adana kebab is the thickness of the skewer and the amount of chilli it contains. Urfa kebab is less spicy and thicker than adana kebab.
Arthog Falls,
24″ x 18″ Acrylic on canvas
I fancied a change of scene and this painting evolved from a photograph that Gina took near our house in Barmouth, North Wales where we have lived and run a business for 23 years. Snowdonia is a landscape artist’s paradise with big skies, spectacular mountains, rivers and forests and the amazing ever changing light. But it also possesses countless beautiful nooks and crannies, rocky paths, ancient woodlands, tiny coves, ruined cottages and mossy glades. As a trout fisherman I spent countless hours absorbing the smell of wet moss, the feel of slippery rocks and the sights and sounds of falling water, intently focussed on scenes just like this, searching for signs of fish. So, in many ways, this work represents those embedded visual memories as well as the strong feelings I have about the time and place.
Bamboo SOLD
31″ x 24″, Acrylic on canvas
We were on our way to the Yoruk Museum and Restaurant, near Ciftlik run by the always hospitable Enver and Aysun Yalcin and their family. The museum is off the beaten track and I took the wrong turning. We found ourselves on a narrow lane that soon dwindled into a track running beside a small stream completely overgrown with bamboo. We pressed on, eagerly anticipating our “eat and drink as much as you like” breakfast, the tabletop overflowing with a huge selection of locally grown and home made dishes. But as we motored on, like the Africa Queen on wheels, the lane became narrower, the bamboo denser and our guests increasingly nervous. I kept thinking it would clear eventually but finally we were forced to a halt, surrounded on three sides by an inpenetrable wall of the stuff, and I had to reverse two or three kilometers back to the turn-off. Perhaps I could add a machete to the car emergency kit for next time and send Gina out in front to hack a path. Mmmm….
The Glade
24″ x 16″ Acrylic on Canvas
I’ve just finished the larger work based on the sketch I posted on the 3rd February. Prosaically, I’ve called it The Glade. It has ended up with more detail than I originally planned to paint and, as usual, I keep telling myself to loosen up!
From the Land of Lights, 11/02/2013
Quote: The State Water Supply Administration awarded the contract for the Gulf of Fethiye to be cleaned from mud last September and now the project has been inaugurated.
The contracting firm has erected its construction site and sent the relative equipment to the region. Work will begin as soon as the permit for the use of the stones used in the project is obtained.
Ali Boğa, Mugla deputy for AK Party, stated that all the formalities would be completed soon and endeavours would be made to finish the work involved ahead of time. Boğa said that the recent case of olive oil waste being poured into the Gulf of Fethiye proved that this was an emergency case, adding, “It is essential for us that this upgrading work is done. We want this project to be completed by the 100th anniversary and the Gulf of Fethiye must be cleaned up completely.”
Boğa also pointed out that the cleaning of the Gulf could not be achieved until the all the water systems entering into the gulf had been restructured, saying, “Our primary job must be to rationaize and upgrade the drainage systems. Then we shall clean the Gulf up. Only then Fethiye can be observed in all its grandeur. This will be of great benefit to our region, particularly in the field of tourism.”
Boğa also explained that as soon as this project was completed, dockyards for cruise ships would be constructed and that it was vital for the authorities and the contracting firm to do their utmost to complete this project.
Ali Boğa stressed that nature belonged to all of us adding, “There is no other Fethiye, nor another Gulf of Fethiye. All of us live here. In order to leave a better environment for our children, everyone, primarily the greenhouse producers, must act conscientiously. Empty bags of agricultural pesticides and chemical wastes should not be thrown into brooks In fact, citizens must report such incidents to the authorities. This is our duty.” End of quote.
I must applaud the efforts to clean up the bay, it’s about time. There are vast quantities of agricultural chemicals draining into the sea and anybody who keeps a boat here has a clear understanding of the water quality. From my personal experience, and that includes owning a water purification business in an earlier life, the hypertrophication ( see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eutrophication ) is the worse I’ve come across.
However, most of this is old news. What is a surprise to me is “ as soon as this project was completed, dockyards for cruise ships would be constructed. “ This has been speculation for a long time, but is it now really about to happen? Is the location at the Karayollari or where the boatyards are now? Are they going to build pontoons out to the deeper water. What is meant by dockyards exactly? What about traffic issues?. I don’t know how much “nature” will be left afterwards. I don’t know whether to be excited or dismayed. I await the next announcement with bated breath!
Julie’s Lake
16″ x 10″ Watercolour
There is a Turkish film called Entelköy Efeköy Karsi (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFmswW2tUt4 with English subtitles) which beautifully and hilariously illustrates the lack of understanding between the incoming “enlightened, arty and enviromentally aware” townies and the farming community upon whom they descend. The story revolves around the relationship between the leaders of the two camps and how love and profit eventually lead to reconciliation. I was reminded of this wide difference in attitude on a walk through the winter woodland above Esenkoy yesterday morning in the excellent company of Oludeniz Hash Harriers. Any clearing in these woods with nearby car access was full of litter, and I do mean full. Yet all summer Turkish families will come for traditional picnics and barbecues and sit happily amongst the piles of debris to add their own contribution of wrappings, broken glass and dirty tissues at the end of the day. It’s heartbreaking to me to despoil such natural beauty, and it will take a generation to change. On a positive note, more and more often, I see local schoolchildren go out of their way to use the litter bins that have appeared all across Fethiye. Somebody, somewhere deserves due credit and our gratitude for this change.
Waves
7″ x 5″ Acrylic on card
Is the sea as beautiful as this every day? Does the sky look like this all the time? Is this furniture, this window always as lovely as this? No by God no, There must be something behind this somewhere. Orhan Veli Kanik, Translated by Bernard Lewis (1982) More Turkish poetry in translation
Kayakoy Landscape 1
10″ x 8″, Acrylic on card
On his recent visit to Fethiye, Turkey’s Minister of Culture and Tourism, Ertuğrul Günay, said that work on a project to reinvent Kayaköy was in progress, and added, “….we have been endeavouring to remake Kayaköy as an additional feature for the affluent Turkish culture and tourism market. A tourism establishment of 300 beds will be constructed and the historical public buildings will be restored, whereby Kayaköy will become a destination for cultural tourism….we shall be asking for bids over the forthcoming weekend, however we must first look for an investor.” He added, “Kayaköy has been a desolate area since the population exchange with most significant natural and historical treasures. It is a very special destination point…..Kayaköy will become one of the most significant tourism centres in Turkey and will enrich the the potential of S.W. Turkey, especially Fethiye…..We certainly do not intend to have all the buildings restored to become tourism facilities. It will be a historical site to be visited on a large scale.”
From a prominent politician, these are interesting and worrying statements indeed. Where will these developments lead? Is this the end of the beginning or the beginning of the end? You may draw your own conclusions.
My thanks to the Land of Lights where the full story can be seen in this week issue.