Some time ago I found an old wiro notebook in a drawer. A scruffy wiro bound notebook with a photo of 2 men in a kayak with a bear on the front cover. In that notebook I found terrible sketches drawn in pencil made while travelling in 1991. One sketch leapt out at me. It was a rough pencil sketch of Mt Ararat from a backpacking trip to eastern Turkey. The sketch really surprised me – it was a very basic pencil sketch, drawn using a .5mm technical pencil on a cheap notepad. The sketch is just black and white… To my surprise the sounds and smells of the day came flooding back. Meeting some Kurdish goat herders and their flock near the base of Mt Ararat, about 10km from the Iranian border on a bright sunny but cool, alpine day. Along with memories of driving across the mountain steppe in an old Renault 19 and the smells of chai and coffee in a Doğubayazıt pasta solunu. It all came back come flooding back! Why did it evoke such vivid memories? I’m not really sure to be honest. Maybe t...
Just down the road a few kilometres from Fort Kochi (keep in mind they are very sweaty walking kilometres when the temperature is 45C!) to Mattancherry and that feeling of walking through history continues with Brahman houses, Hindu temples, the ‘Dutch Palace’ (confusingly built and gifted by the Portuguese as a gift to the king of Cochin, around 1545), and right next door a Jewish synagogue and nearby a Syrian Orthodox Church. There is no shortage of subjects for the visiting sketcher!
Suddenly the sound of drumming broke the calm as I was finishing my sketch and 2 young boys with shaven heads on a decorated carriage were carried past on the shoulders of a dozen or so men.
I didn’t actually draw the beautiful old synagogue in Mattancherry/Jew Town. In fact it was hard to get close enough for all the ‘photographers’ and their ‘models’ posing for their Instagram feeds. Photography seems to be a big deal here, and they’re often shooting footage on full professional gear, even tripods and lighting.
To be honest some of the poses and poseurs made me nauseous so I decided to wander a little further along Jew Town Road to see what I could find. Eventually I found these old spice trader buildings and I got to draw them in relative peace.
I love sketching patinated old buildings and I even got a brief look inside when I met the owner! Thats what I call a good morning out with a sketchbook.
Comments