Category Archives: painting
Picturing the homes of two heroes (kahraman (Tr): hero)
I often have occasion to pass by the pink yali on the Bosphorus where Argonauts one of my recent Istanbul paintings now lives. Paying the painting and the home of its discerning collectors, the Kahraman family a visit I was … Continue reading
Posted in art collecting, boats, bosphoros, cities, istanbul, painting, ships, Turkish interiors, visual arts
Tagged Argonauts, Arnavutkoy, Bosphorus, istanbul, Istanbul interiors, Ottoman interiors, painting, Turkey
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In Praise of beauty: Susan Sontag on Howard Hodgkin’s paintings
Revisiting my art books scattered in various homes across the land, I come across this gem from Susan Sontag on the Venice paintings of Howard Hodgkin, and it immediately takes me back to Istanbul: Venice once again. Imagining the imagined. … Continue reading
Posted in cities, istanbul, journey, painting, Uncategorized, visual arts
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The blank page
I have moved from blogger to wordpress. It is part of that need for a fresh canvas, a white sheet of paper, the blank page. It coincides incidentally with a studio clear out. Unlike Francis Bacon or Frank Auerbach whose … Continue reading
Posted in artists studios, cities, city, painting, Uncategorized
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Slow change city
This morning a white ship on a white bosphoros, barely delineated. I grew up in a small town, whose lineaments became as familiar to me as the lines on my hand The silhouette of Makanaskop rising up like a small … Continue reading
Posted in cities, grahamstown, painting, rhodes
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A fresh look at a beautiful city
I was recently asked to write something about “beauty” for the January edition of the IWI International Women of Istanbul) magazine Lale so here it is… Venturing into landscape painting in the climate of contemporary art making is a perverse … Continue reading
Posted in bosphoros, city, drawing, istanbul, painting, sketchbooks, visual arts
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heritage
Hibernating at home to update my portfolio. And so to write my biography. Or as my dear ceramicist friend Jane Young said this week ” acknowledge your heritage”. Like a painting there are many layers to this. My mother Lindsay … Continue reading
Posted in don maclennan, grahamstown, grahamstown group, lindsay page, painting, passage, visual arts
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the road to damascus
Return from Syria again aware that what has been captured in my notebooks needs an out. What remains as I am once again buffeted on the pavements of Istanbul, is a sense of newness, compositions that configure in my minds … Continue reading
Posted in damascus, drawing, journey, mosques, painting, sketchbooks, syria
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launching a new fleet
“Ruzgar” is the Turkish name for wind and in the language there are names for the particular winds, their textures, temperatures and origins. There is a cool summer wind blowing from the Bosphoros. Ekmek Cafe remains closed and I have … Continue reading
Posted in bosphoros, painting, ships, yorkshire
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Homer’s Boat (For Don Maclennan)
“Hello Shorty” is how Don used to greet me. Anyone who knows me will appreciate the humour. There was something infinitely consoling about knowing that there was Don out there in the world, someone I could picture in his study … Continue reading
Posted in boats, don maclennan, painting, poetry
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