Tag Archives: my paintings

Armagnac or Rakı?

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.

Snowdonia memories

Arthog Falls, 24" x 18" Acrylic on canvas

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

Bamboo 31" x 24", Acrylic on canvas

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

The Glade 24" x 16" Acrylic on Canvas

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!