December news

More from my trip to Morocco, today I am going to share picture of our trip to Erg Chebbi. We rode camels, saw the sunset in the Sahara desert, had dinner under the stars and camped in the desert.

The first picture shows the eight of us reflected on the dunes as the sun goes down. I am in the first group of six, fourth camel in line.

 

 

looking towards the setting sun

 

 

we rode the camels for a few minutes then stopped to paint/sketch and photograph the setting sun

 

 

There it goes!

 

 

Hamming it up for the camera:

I took pictures and so did one of our camel guides

 

 

Here is my camel, I called him Cecil

 

 

quite a handsome guy, but cheeky, he kept trying to nip the person in front of me

 

 

I stopped to hold the moon

 

 

a table and chairs on a dune near our camp

 

 

Our camp; it is cold in the desert at night!

 

 

A map of the area, we were close to the #15 on the map; that is the border of Algeria close by.

 

 

 

The next morning after watching the sunrise we walked across to where our bus was parked, this is the view from one of the doors back towards the desert and the next picture is of our camp from a distance.

 

 

Camels, resting and eating.

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News from the studio:

The Great Gifts Sale (Ferry Building) was cancelled, the renovation was not finished in time, hopefully next year?

Here are a couple of paintings I have done since I returned:

One is a pathway in the Kasbah, Ait Ben Hadou, and the other is a stairway in the Riad we stayed at with a view of the Kasbah.

 

 

This is a pen drawing of a leaf skeleton:

Here are paintings I completed before my trip:

Both are available, framed or unframed, your choice.

 

Bucerias Church (Mexico)

Side street in Malta

 

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Current Exhibit:

 

Gallery 1710:

 

These are framed but could also be purchased unframed if you prefer:

Three Part Harmony

There Otter be Snow at .....

Balanced

Nutcracker Sweets

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Here is a short video:

 

Exploring the Sahara Desert - Lonely Planet

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Well that is all for this time,

happy Wednesday, with whimsy,

Gillian

 

 

November Nomad

I am posting this one from Morocco where I am touring and painting with Leslie Lambert and Ted Tours. We have been in Casablanca, Marrakech but I will only share some sites from Ait Ben Haddou and Skoura today.

I actually finished a whole long post and accidentally deleted it just before publishing it. So I will see how long I can stay awake and try again. I am doing this on my iPad for the first time so hope to share this one.

Ait Ben Haddou, a world heritage site:

Located in the southern slopes of Atlas Mountains Ait Ben Haddou is a famous Ksar.

Lots of visitors leave a new stone or two and the top.

This artist was demonstrating adding dark colours to his watercolours with tea and sugar and then putting it over a flame.

Leslie was up early, before sunrise, painting on the roof deck, I enjoyed breakfast and observed.

The stairway to the upper deck above.later in we painted on another deck before and after lunch.

Then on to Skoura, which is in the middle of nowhere, I doubt you will find it on a map. It was all for us, we had beautiful rooms and dined in the garden when we arrived. We had a kitchen too.

The next day we had a cooking class on beef tagine which we enjoyed for lunch.

Our guide was curious about the Thanksgiving tradition in North America so  we got the ingredients, Leslie brought some essentials with her, to make a pumpkin and pecan pies and had that with whipped cream of course for dessert.

Now we are headed to the desert.

Here are a couple of images for our painting:

More later but I am going to post this before I lose it again.

Sorry it is a day late but

Happy Wednesday wit whimsy,

Gillian