Kathmandu airport, waiting for the flight across the Himalayas. A monk buys Tolberone and Pringles.
In Tibet: Yumbulagang monastery. Prayer flags cover the hills around.
Day 2: Kathmandu
01 October 2007
Urban sketching in Nepal. Second stage of the journey gets us a far as Kathmandu. Lunch at a restaurant overlooking the dome of the Boudhanath Stupa (behind the sunshades).
Looking from my hotel window, I realise that we’re in one of the highest buildings in the city. Unlike every other capital, Kathmandu has no skyscrapers cluttering up the view. But it has enough traffic to match any other city: cars, painted lorries, overcrowded minibuses, bicycles, motorbikes, rickshaws, nervous pedestrians and sleeping dogs fight for road-space. It’s also the rule that when you’re driving, and you see another car (or van or lorry or minibus or bicycle or motorbike or rickshaw or pedestrian), you must sound your horn.
Our guide tells us, "The only way you'll ever cross the road is to just step out into the traffic. They'll go round you."
Tibet: Day 2 - Doha, Qatar
30 September 2007
First stage of the journey takes us to Doha, with its L-shaped city views. Old, low-rise buildings stretch along the coast toward a very modern development of skyscrapers and cranes. A day here, before we fly to Kathmandu this afternoon.
The entire city is a building site. Outside it’s 40°C plus; the air hits you like a brick wall.
Doha
Doha
It's too hot to walk anywhere, so I took the lift to the top, twenty-sixth, floor of the hotel, and drew the view back along the peninsula.
Tibet: Day 1 - Heathrow
29 September 2007
Journey to Tibet: Urban sketching on the roof of the world.
We fly out late on Saturday evening to Qatar.
Heathrow airport
Venice: Day 4
09 July 2007
Rio dei Frari
Urban sketching in Venice: The problem with painting in Venice is that whichever way you turn, there is another stunning view of a canal crossed a quaint bridge, and lined by crumbling Renaissance palaces.
(It's not really a problem.)
Rio del Frescede
Piazza Roma
A quick sketch while waiting for the bus back to the airport.
Marco Polo airport
Venice: Day 3
08 July 2007
Rio dell Erimete
Urban sketching in Venice: In spite of the hordes of tourists that suffocate St Mark’s Square and the Rialto Bridge, you don’t have to go far to find somewhere quiet, where you can paint undisturbed.
Arsenale
Venice: Day 2
07 July 2007
Urban sketching in Venice: Early morning in Piazza San Marco, before the cruise crowds arrive. View from the Palazzo Ducale of the column with the statue of St Theodore, and a corner of the Libreria Sansoviniana.
After visiting the John Singer Sargent exhibition at the Museo Correr, we tracked down some of the sites where he painted. This is the Campo San Canziano.
Sortie de l’église, de l’église, Campo San Canciano, Venice
John Singer Sargent,1882
Little has changed in 125 years: the buildings, the windows and the doorways are the same. Even that white paint on building on the extreme right is still there. The only thing that seems to have changed is the colour of the main building.
Venice: Day 1
06 July 2007
Urban sketching in Venice: The view south down the Grand Canal, from a corner of the Rialto Bridge, inches from the water. I’m using the Grand Canal as a water supply, and to wash my brushes in.
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