The little house by the sunset.

Look what they've done to my song ma.

Kerala 1981

This little house is now a large bamboo restaurant, along with many others all the way along the cliffs

and after

The Earring (before)

The sea was always so blue at noon and always just simply beautiful.

Golden greens, black reds,

Prussian grey to whites and hint of cad

and raw umber beach

A junction named Count the Monkeys

A junction called "count the monkeys"

*

Today there were some clouds in the sky,

and simply everyone at the junction heard of it.

This time

that time

springtime never

live today and die tomorrow.

homage to the Mabinogion

Once upon a time, I was thinking of entering a competition (in Wales) with an illustration/painting from the Mabinogion.
I opened the first chapter and there was the story I felt I could paint about - immediately!
- a large voice inside me said "you can't do that, you have to read the whole book!"
I stopped at that point and as yet haven't read the whole book. This picture, although I didnt initially intend it was that image I saw in my minds eye, back then.

The Bridge over the Bitlis.

As I sit here, I'm unsure of when we were in this neck of the woods.

I have a feeling it was late in the 80's.

We may have been driving I don't know, we certainly did a lot of hitching about during those years that spanned the Kuwait invasion.

Thing that got me, was the military were more frightened by the Kurds than Saddam.

I also look a little Kurdish when I've been out in the sun!

Anyway, we passed this bridge, somehow, and I was amazed that people were living in, on and around it. I've seen films like that before.

First scribble in the "diary"

I just felt that this was a story - that could be told, a source of "ready" inspiration!

I didn't realise it, but it stained me.

I seem to be finding the "great stains in my life at present"

I thought that the place name was Bitlis, but that is the name of the river.

Anyway, I've found a couple of prints about a bridge there, but they are old and I really don't remember the town being so far in the background.

Mind, they might have had new bridges since then.

wow, it didn't look like that!

The founding of a great peoples

Under completion.

From Siwas, Western Egypt.

The Founding of a great peoples -
Once upon a time
(the date is always very important)
There were quite a few smallish but very cultured and peace loving folk.
They were quite happy and farmed
and worked hard and had beliefs.
Unfortunately, large blocks of them kept on getting knocked off
by dirty, roving bands of murderous, raping brigands.

One day after an impartially severe run of physical abuse and theft,
a small enclave of these non-nomadic folk decided
that it was time to put their collective heads together
to come up with a tribe saving solution
They probably appointed a leader,
but he remains unimportant
(and nameless)
As the whole thing was a collective issue.

The Elders said to build on top.

*

A village of stairs stares

From a very early of our treks into the foothills of the Himalayas.

Simple paranoia!

I seem to remember that I had just bought a crippling pair of Chamba chapels
made with rough leather with tyre soles -not very good for walking a long way in!

Fire for a pheonix

California 2018

I dont remember painting this, but I assume it was during the time when Aydin entered this world.

And after further examination - -