Tag Archives: Acrylics

Kayaköy Festıval 2013

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Kayakoy Landscape No.5 10" x 8" Acrylic on card

Kayakoy Landscape No.5
10″ x 8″ Acrylic on card

Cultural Connections is an annual celebration of literature, film, art, music, dance and food… all the stuff of life that links humanity throughout the world. Both stimulating, challenging, occasionally provocative and always fun, Cultural Connections is an excitingly different and thought provoking way to explore the things that bring people together.

This five-day event, Kayaköy Connections 2013 will celebrate the Kaya valley in southwest Turkey, its long history, rich culture and links with Greece. Acclaimed authors Louis de Bernières, Victoria Hislop, Jeremy Seal will be travelling from the UK and Sofka Zinovieff will be joining them from Athens. Others, from Turkey, Greece, yet to be decided, will join them to take part in a range of thought provoking, fun and entertaining events and gatherings.

More information can be found here  http://culturalconnectionsfestival.com/

 

Kaya light

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Kayakoy Landscape 101 20" x 14" Acrylic on canvas

Kayakoy Landscape 101
20″ x 14″ Acrylic on canvas

Mostly the light is harsh and unforgiving, it comes from directly above so doorways and windows become black holes. Then again, the sun shines on the white plaster of an internal wall and the window opposite beams like a searchlight. Other days the light is hazy and diffuse, and there isn’t much contrast, shadows get bleached out, then there are no really dark areas and the light bounces off the stone into the shadows.  The walls have eroded into dark and light areas that are independant of the light. So a vertical dark band on a facing wall gives the impression of a shadowed side wall which would naturally be light (if it was there!).  And all the walls are like that.  Its very confusing to the eye and I struggle to resolve it without losing realism.  For example, the apse(in shadow) is lighter than the side wall of the church (in the light) and the pink plastered walls actually seem to glow  It’s very tricky.  On the other hand it’s one of the things that make Kayakoy so visually fascinating to me.

Antifouling blues

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Daisy the Dog 10" x 8" Acrylic on card

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.

The Colour Purple

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Armagnac Autumn with Lavender and Hay 15" x 8" Acrylic on card

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 or Rakı?

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Armagnac Autumn. A Gascony landscape with vines and lavender. 13" x 10" Acrylic on card

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.