Drawing Fast-Paced Faces

" MOTH JOURNEY " - 2 mixed media, suspended artworks - An attempt to explain the steps involved in their creation.

3/9/2026

In Spring's bright sunlight, a solitary butterfly appears to me on the rooftop terrace of the Kasbah des Caids, Tamnougalt, in the Draa Valley of Morocco.
Fluttering amongst the mud walls and cane lattice.
Landing on my extended finger, twice, to my whispered calls - the same and only butterfly.

Photo taken by Cait Wait

~ the butterfly is a symbol of transformation ~

Throughout the Spring and Summer in Essaouira, butterflies appear to me again and again.
In such unlikely ways that I can't help but pay attention.
Other symbols of transformation and change present themselves.
They make their timely appearance as I relocate my art studio, expand my workshops and evolve my tours.....

"Street Tarot" - representing an end or resolution. Found the day before I made the non-renewal on my art studio lease.

A surprise gift of a snakeskin while I pack my art studio - symbol of transformation.

The wind sent me guinea fowl feathers while waiting on my removalist. First I've seen in ten years in Morocco.

Through the waxing dark of late Summer and into deep Autumn, I'm thinking about the butterfly transformation through death and renewal.
What are the symbols of transformation in the darkness?
The shadow work.
The Night Butterfly?

THE MOTH!

I expand on this idea with a Mind Map, which explodes the whole theme for me,
and I scribble it down.
These mind maps are an important part of my practice.

Here's a very tidy and legible example that I've redone in my sketchbook, specially for you.
A two page spread....

See how I follow threads? It's not about using my imagination to escape or fast thinking to quickly reach a destination.
It's more like a radial design, a web of memories and experiences, that I note and follow.
There are "thought knots" in this thread, that I feel and question and research.
Creating in the Winter season - the darkness is a time of gestation, full of possibility and inspiration. It's a comforting and hopeful period.

On this thought journey there are simultaneous images where I need a pencil and a sketchbook page. I also go searching for previous experiments and look through online pictures and information......

~ then I start making the moths ~

Firstly through linocut :

transferring moth shapes and patterns to linoleum,
carving away what I don't want to print,
rolling printers ink onto each linoblock,
"pulling" prints using a range of different papers.
the image shows the inking stage.

Then burning :

you can see the connection for this idea in my earlier Mind Map - the moth to the flame.
previous experience with making work using the element of fire.
a particular moth I found actually looks like it's wings are patterned with burnt holes.
I'm using an incense stick in the photo.

And rubbings and collage :

the rubbings are made with the linoblocks and coloured wax blocks,
the collages composed of a variety of papers I've either found or patterned myself with walnut ink on brown papers.

The Winter Soltice arrives and the dark, cold days draw me to the cauldron - it's time to make a batch of encaustic medium....

Crushing dammar resin to a powder and combining with melted, bleached beeswax in a slow cooker. Removing the tree resin's detritus of bark etc and pouring into metal patty tin moulds. The next day packing them in baking parchment for storing.

You can follow the encaustic thread on my Mind Map - moth to the flame -
candle - wax - encaustic - Fayum mummy portraits - life and afterlife.

I pop a cake of encaustic medium into a foil container on the electric grill.
Soft goat hair brushes at the ready.
Once melted I brush the encaustic medium onto the moths that are sitting on the warm grill surface.
Then leave them to dry and set on sheets of baking parchment.
Most of them worked well. While others couldn't stand the heat. But no surprises,
I was expecting some rejects.
A lovely way to spend a cold, winter's afternoon.
The scent of the beeswax and dammar resin was delicious. It lingered in my studio for days afterwards.

I thread the moths on a silver thread that hangs from a mirror moon.
The mirror speaks of reflection and transformation; reflecting light into the darkness.

Moths also have transverse orientation skills - they navigate thousands of miles by the light of the moon.
These migrations, (result in pollinations by particular species), suffer in the industrialized world as street lighting interferes with the moth's navigation.

At the bottom of the silver string, acting as an anchor, is a cocoon.
Crocheted from jute and attached to a date palm stalk.
This is the moth's transformation space, its place of shape-shifting and metamorphosis.

Here they are -
9 moths on each silver string,
142 cm and 158 cm in length,
including their raffia hanging rings.

You can view a short video on my Facebook and Instagram

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Drawing Fast-Paced Faces...

8/5/2025

For the past four Monday afternoons I've been taking part in a wonderful Zoom meeting.
From 5-6 pm - here in Essaouira, Morocco - you'll find me drawing portraits.
About 13 of them each session - with whatever media I like onto any surface I choose.
The meeting participants are the models and we draw to music.
One pose, one music track, one drawing - and on and on for the hour.
There are two time slots on Monday - on CET/Paris time - 9am and 6pm.
It's called Drawing Is Free and organised by Chloe Briggs.
Go to her website - drawingisfree.org - for all the information.
And yes, it's free. You just need the Zoom app. (which is also free).
You can keep your camera off if you don't want to pose but still draw.

All my drawings in these sessions are happening on
folded mixed media paper to be made into book structures.
The portraits are drawn on both sides of the paper - over 50 so far!
Some of the drawings work and others don't, in my opinion,
but I will let them all stay as part of the process.

I'm using gouache and graphite for the moment.

Everyone's flesh colour is so varied -
depending on lighting, computers, tablets, phones and internet connections...

The length of the music tracks vary from 2 to 5 minutes.
There's no time for allowing wet media to dry - so fabulous poolings and blendings happen.

The man, above right, was painted to a Led Zeppelin track of 5 minutes -
that extra minute or two made a lot of difference.
I worked into the drawing later - see below - with coloured pencils.

Hope you can join in.
Chloe Briggs is also on Instagram as - drawingisfree_org
where she shares all her drawings, workshops and events.

RUNES - creating a set of one's own...

15/1/2025

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You may have heard me speak of "following a thread".
It's something I do as part of creating my art which then weaves itself into my life.

By following a thread I mean -

expanding on a thought - daydreaming,
writing and drawing out an experience, dream or vision - journaling,
researching in books and online,
pulling some oracle or tarot cards,
playful doodling or serious studies in my sketchbooks,

But also

walking on the beach - my meditations....

I slowly wander the Essaouira tide lines - high and low - through all seasons;
looking, admiring, searching, inquiring.
Usually humming made up tunes.
Sometimes I take photographs and often claim a treasure that's 'talking' to me;
something that starts a story - a little thread end I can pull on - a Story Stone.

Of course every stone has a story -

thrown from a volcano,
journeying by glacier,
revealed by the sea.

Each an individual; smooth, rough, dimpled, cracked or knapped.
Glossy, speckled, striped, translucent.
I think perhaps their greatest power is permanence.
They can hold a memory for us and meaning and significance.
Stone circles that are scattered across the whole world, being the most powerful examples.

Back in 2021, on one of my meditation beach walks, I thought about carving or drawing my own symbols onto the stones. To stamp them with a more obvious meaning to communicate to others.
Of course Runic symbols popped into my mind - yes! I think I'll make myself a set of Runes !
It felt right to make them from the stones, rather than wood or bone, though both of these would be lovely.
But here, the stones on the beach, at the edge of the sea - symbolising the place between the conscious and the unconscious - made sense, for my time here in Essaouira.

I collected the 25 stones slowly. Different colours, around the same size and thinness.
Most importantly, they had to feel right; no resistance to my touch, feeling easy and lively.

3 years later I made them - I said I collected slowly.

Using a buttery soft burgundy leather,
I hand stitched a pouch.
Rolled over the top to reveal the suede side, scalloped the edges and stitched a casing
for a red and green plaited cord.

There was a cut in the leather remnant
and so I patched it with a scrap,
stitching it to the inside.

Then I stitched on a Triskele,
(pronounced triss-keel or try-skeel).

Representing the three aspects of the
Triple Goddess: maiden, mother and crone.

Then I slowly drew each Runic symbol
onto the 24 selected stones.
Stone 25 - the Rune of Destiny -
remains blank.

Complete and ready for my questions.

I use Ralph Blum's - "The Book of Runes" - for the interpretations.
This book is readily available and comes with its own set of runes.

If you'd like to make a set of Runes for yourself -
go for a Meditation Wander and look and listen for inspiration.

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1-54 CAAF Marrakech 2023

30/4/2023

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The Contemporary African Art Fair returns after The Long Pause.....

Above: Katoubia Mosque, Marrakech

A typical Winter's day, when it starts to give way to Spring,
at the end of February in Marrakech, Morocco.
I took the bus from coastal Essaouira for a day in the Red City - specifically to see the
Contemporary African Art Fair 2023
the annual event returning after an absence of two years because of you-know-what.

Twenty galleries showcasing African artists within the walls of La Mamounia -
probably the most famous of Marrakech's elegant hotels.
A day of art, divine Moroccan interiors and extensive walled gardens
in the heart of Marrakech - bliss!

OK, so let's take a wander through the different galleries;
Following are pictures of the ones I liked and a little explanation of why.
Feel free to research the artists yourself for more of their work and information.

Hako Hankson

Born 1968 - Bafang, Cameroon. Lives and works in Douala, a coastal city of Cameroon.

Above: The Power of the Image - mixed media on canvas - 150 x 150 cm

Can't help but feel/see a delightful Basquiat vibe here.
It's the visual storytelling I think with confident coloured and varied brush lines.
Love the spontaneity of drawing with a brush and paint.
Look at the details below; the stories within stories.

Two more of his mixed media pieces on canvas...

The Guardian of Paradise I
mixed media on canvas
120 x 100 cm

The Guardian of Paradise II
mixed media on canvas
120 x 100 cm

Amina Agueznay

Born 1963 - Casablanca, Morocco - lives and works in Casablanca.

Above: Portal #2, 2023
Natural spun undyed wool, cotton, palm husk and palm leaves flat and knotted weave
193 x 151 cm

These wall weavings were born out of a collaboration with the architect Salima Naji,
who is one of the most prominent advocates for the protection of architectural heritage and the preservation of traditional and local building techniques in Morocco. She uses local natural materials in all her projects, most notably: clay, palm leaves, wood and stone. She always works in partnership with local artisans and craftsmen, taking care to renew and develop their techniques and methods.

Above: Lefdam brode #5, 2023
Natural spun undyed wool and palm husk (talefdamt) - Embroidery - 48 X 56 cm.

Above: Lefdam brode #1, 2023
Natural spun undyed wool and palm husk (talefdamt) - Embroidery - 52 X72 cm.

Above: Lefdam brode #6, 2023
Natural spun undyed wool and palm husk (talefdamt) - Embroidery - 55 X 45 cm.

Feeling an instant 'sense of place' with Amina's pieces.
I'm in-deep with her process - all my senses on alert - I know this journey -
these fibres: wool and palm - I work with them over and over again here in Morocco.
Beginning in the date palm oasis of the Draa Valley; collecting the rough, dusty husks and leaves and combining them with the course, luminously coloured rug wool sourced from the rural souk in Agdz. Using the clipped fleece in white, black and flecked grey fawn - carding it and working with a drop spindle to spin it. Going further and collecting together henna leaves and pomegranate skins to dye the white wool a delicious dark ginger hue.

My first steps exploring date palm fibre with sheep's wool. Sourced and woven in the Draa Valley of Morocco - back in Feb. 2016

There's an earlier Blog Post of mine on the wool dyeing process mentioned above,
if you're interested here it is: Dying With Henna
It shows a workshop with Mina; an Amazigh woman we work with on my
Cultural Fabric - Fibre and Textile Journey - INFO HERE -
if you'd like to join me in Morocco for 15 days of fibre and textile heaven.

And back to the Fair....

Mous Lamrabat

Born 1983 - Temsaman, Morocco - lives and works in Belgium.

Above: The Girl with the Cheesy Earing, 2022

Moustapha Lamrabat is a well known fashion photographer creating striking images.
He's worked for Elle, Vogue Italia, Vogue Arabia, GQ Middle East and Esquire.
Have a look at his portfolio on his website - mousmous.com

Thandiwe Muriu

Born 1990, Nairobi, Kenya - continues to live and work there.

Thandiwe discovered photography at 14, thanks to her father.
She trained herself using books and the internet and began working
as a professional photographer at 17.
She was introduced to advertising photography and shot her
first advertising campaign when she was 23.
Since 2019 she has been concentrating on fine art photography.

The gallery representing her made the right choice when they chose this colour
for their booth walls! Don't you think?

Ana Silva

Born 1979, Calulo, Angola - lives and works in Lisbon, Portugal.

Above: Enfant 010, 2022

An artist-poet, she embroiders her work onto scraps of fabric and plastic bags.
Sourcing abandoned materials: food sacks, packaging, cloth remnants and lace;
they are collaged together to form a new surface on which Ana stitches stories of her homeland: difficulties accessing water, Angola's war of independence and the civil war.

Below: detail of the top right corner above.

Many artists in the world have difficulty accessing materials for their work.
Instead they explore their immediate environments;
transforming and repurposing abandoned items, literally embedding thought in material to create poignant, sensitive and beautiful art.

Missed photographing the title of this one, sorry.

Above: Agua 042, 2021 - 170 x 170 cm

Gopal Dagnogo

Born 1973, Ivory Coast - studied painting in France - based between Abidjan and Paris.

Loved this piece; the colour palette and variety of lines.
The alternating positive and negative shapes.
That active, warm centre and cool surrounds.
Delicious.
(I forgot to take a photo of the title plate - got too caught up in the painting).

Mahi Binebine

Born 1959, Marrakech, Morocco - lived and worked in Paris, Madrid, New York and now Marrakech.

Above and details below: Untitled, 2022

My favourite Moroccan artist. A painter, sculptor and writer.
His work is presented at the Fair every year and I seek it out.
I love his materials: beeswax, bitumen, charcoal, graphite, paper.

Abdulrazaq Awafeso

Born 1978, Lagos, Nigeria - lives and works between Britian and Nigeria.

Just for fun.
These are made from dismantled pallets; carved and painted. I like the way the shapes are pieced together with staples.

and then I took myself off for a long relaxing wander around the gardens of La Mamounia.....

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Studios I Have Known...

1/1/2023

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I see it's been quite some time since I blogged!
And we all know why.
Needless to say - I've been far from idle.
The main news is I've opened a new public studio!
Studio CREATRIX
In Essaouira's medina on the Atlantic coast of Morocco,
and while in the process of creating it, I've been looking back.
This will be my fourth public studio, so I thought I would share some pictures of one, two and three. A walk down memory lane....

So, in 1998 -
my first public studio space was in Manly, on the Northern Beaches of Sydney, Australia - a large room I purposely designed for teaching, exhibiting and developing my own artwork. It saw many people pass through it's doors during its twelve years of growth and I'm happy to still be in contact with many of them. Some have visited with me here in Morocco; joining me on tour and enjoying my workshops in a very different culture and landscape!

The studio was upstairs, in the back of a very ugly church built in the 1920's. The seven by nine metre room had twelve foot high ceilings with plaster mouldings. The arched windows and doors were originally painted Mission Brown; the walls "Institution Green" and the floor was covered in a smelly grey carpet.
The interior had good bones and after I renovated it: carpet removed with all the staples and nails removed by hand, one by one, floors sanded and polished, completely repainted, new lighting installed and shelving built in - it was transformed into a lovely space to create in.

For twelve years, it was the place for weekly day and evening classes, weekend workshops, solo and group exhibitions. And for five consecutive years from 2005 to 2009, every September, the studio was part of the Manly Arts Festival. A great opportunity for a wider audience to view the student's work on the walls and witness classes in action; to chat with the artists about their latest works in process.

At the end of 2009, a letter arrived from the church stating they would like the room back.
A non-negotiable request.
So, after weighing up my options; I decided to move out of Sydney,
north to the hinterland of the Sunshine Coast; a place called Maleny, in Queensland.
After 50 years in Sydney, I spent the month of January 2010 packing up my apartment and studio and in February, moved my life north.

By June, I had a position as manager at Gary Myers Gallery at Maleny Arts Retreat - the job came with an apartment, studio and workshop space - all this set on an eleven hectare property, nine kilometres from Maleny's town centre.

Manning the gallery and organising workshops and classes was great in this beautiful setting.

The weather was challenging at times, specially during the Wet season when torrential rain and floods lasted for weeks. The ever present mould and mildew would take off with a growth spurt; the rural setting making it necessary to deal with hand-sized spiders, families of mice and the occasional snake. The building was technically one big tin shed and during downpours your voice or the phone couldn't be heard over the din.

I found my tribe in Maleny - a large population of artists and creatives. People with wonderful skill sets in this rural community of kind, practical and hardworking humans.
There were times I missed Sydney and the museums, galleries and exhibitions, but was able to make a few visits for special workshops on the Hawkesbury River. Special for their time allowing me reconnection with friends and students in such beautiful surroundings.
Of course there were day trips to Brisbane's galleries and museums, where possible, and they were very inspiring.

Below, the two pictures show the downstairs workshop area. This was a great space for our weekly classes, life drawing sessions, monthly workshops and more....

Here's my studio space in the pictures below - a lot of work was created here.
Long quiet evenings making artists books and drawings. During the floods I remember making lots of linocuts, monoprints and reductive linocuts - fond memories.

However, after eighteen months, the property was sold.
The handover was on Melbourne Cup Day (November 2011) and we had one last party.
The new owner wanted to take the place in a different direction, so......

By April 2012, I had found a small and affordable commercial space to rent, in Maleny's town centre. My studio was the last in a row of shops with a huge tree outside. The Obi Obi Creek flowed through the gully behind, audible during heavy rains and the view was onto a vacant, grassy plot of land.
I happily continued my classes, courses and workshops.
From this little place Maleny Printmakers was birthed. We held our first meetings and exhibitions here.
Also the idea for creating Pop Up Galleries in the then empty shops of Maleny's main street. The artists were able to create four Pop Up Galleries in all, helping to bring life and creative energy back into empty spaces and see the area fully operational again.

Then in September 2015 I packed up my studio again,
because I'd said yes, to the opportunity that had come my way:
to move to Morocco via Catalonia. And that's a whole other story.

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Following a Thread ----------

12/12/2019

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The beginning.....
Below, are some pages from the magazine - World of Interiors; an article I saved because it resonated strongly with me in a number of ways. It's written by Marie-France Boyer, with photos by Serge Anton and was published in 2014. It talks of Eric Ossart and Arnaud Maurieres, two Frenchmen who were collecting rugs in eastern Morocco.
I bought these pages with me when I moved to Morocco in 2015....

The context.....
I'm intrigued by the colour, pattern and design of these rugs made by women from the Aït Kebbach tribe of the eastern Moroccan desert. They were once nomads whose vast desert terrain took in Algeria, and were forced to change their lifestyle in 1956 when Morocco gained independence and the frontier between the two countries was defined. They settled on the Moroccan side and no longer lived beside their flocks of sheep. They had slept in tents on blankets, both of which they wove, but now found themselves on hard floors surrounded by flat walls. And so they started to weave soft rugs and cushion covers; creating a decorative and comfortable environment for their families.
No longer having a ready supply of sheep's wool they bought jumpers from the souk and unravelled them. The fibre was generally synthetic but the colour range was fantastic. The women sometimes added real wool, dyed with chemical powder, tea or henna. Also scraps of cloth were knotted and woven through along with purchased strong cotton yarns.

Where the thread led.....
You can imagine my delight when this exhibition opened in June 2019, at the Yves Saint Laurent Museum in Marrakech :

" DESERT DESIGN - Contemporary Rugs of the Eastern Region of Morocco "

Eric Ossart and Arnaud Mauriѐres, the collectors of the rugs in the magazine article above, were the Curators of this exhibition. They bought some of their vast collection to the walls of the Temporary Exhibition Space. By doing this, they changed the context* of these rugs; no longer spread out on a concrete floor or the dirt ground, they transformed into large, abstract, fibre sculptures. Each wild, strong and vivid creation paired with a neat name plate; here the Ait Kebbach women were being individually honoured. It was most gratifying to see their faces alongside photographs of their landscapes and intimate shots of their house interiors. Also to celebrate with them their achievements; the public acknowledgement of their ingenuity, skills and hard work. What a joy!

* The word context originates from the Latin - contexere - to weave together.

Fortunately, photos were allowed in this exhibition
and a complete and affordable catalogue was published.

ABOVE - LEFT TO RIGHT
Mina Badi - Khadija Lahcen - Haga Ougil
BELOW - LEFT TO RIGHT
Adjou Bassou - Ito Bouykbane - Tisserande (pseudonym)

L to R: Aïcha Marouche - Fatima Oujil - Zahra Ouhya

The thread has many strands....
So inspired by these various coloured fibres, patterns and wildly beautiful, creative responses these women have made - I started my own experiments...
During my Textile Tours we spend time with Mina (an Amazigh woman in the Draa Valley) who, among her many skills, shows us the knot she makes to create her rugs. This knot "unit" of colour/texture can read like a pixel, a stitch, a blob of paint etc, and build into patterns to create overall designs.
Here are my experiments/samples using both purchased and recycled materials....

I use a simple cardboard loom, that you've seen my tour participants use on my Facebook posts, and a cotton warp. (I'm still using the large hank of cotton I purchased in Agdz souk in Southern Morocco.)
The knots/pile are created from recycled polypropylene bags cut into small strips, alternating rows with a cotton weft.

With these two samples, above and below, I really like the back face - perhaps more than the front. In fact, here in Morocco, rugs are sometimes flipped over for the Summer months.
Having the back face uppermost aids the cleaning of the rug - as feet walking backwards and
forwards help to dislodge any built up dirt and deposits it on the floor for sweeping up.

The second experiment using smaller polypropylene strips, and a cotton warp like the sample above, but with a multi coloured acrylic thread weft.
I'm using the polypropylene bags mainly for their colour. The material is not robust enough for a rug unfortunately, but it's a material I had to hand in abundance, and suitable for testing these techniques and ideas.
To explore further, you'll see pictured below, I tried some cotton cloth strips (cut from old scarves). The warp is the usual cotton like before, but the weft is a hand spun sheep's wool. This combination of materials is widely used here in Morocco to make Boucherouite (rag) rugs.

Now this combination is definitely one I can take further; perhaps I'll explore the Joutia (the Sunday second-hand Souk), here in Essaouira, to recycle some coloured cloth. Certainly the course rug wool, in many colours, is in plentiful supply. For the larger project I'm planning, it will be time and patience that are hardest to find.
These small samples were fun to make - I offer one and two day Boucherouite 101 workshops - where you'll learn to set up a simple loom and weave and knot a sample piece using your own recycled cloth, wool, cotton and polypropylene bags. Suitable for all levels including beginners.

More strands....
There are paintings brewing too but I'll save them for another Blog post.

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Zinaida goes to Morocco...

23/8/2019

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My first encounter with Zinaida Serebriakova was sighting her fresh and beautiful self-portrait in Whitney Chadwick's book: Women, Art and Society (now in it's fifth edition). I was struck by it's openess; by the painting's many access points: the direct and honest gaze - a moment shared with the artist as she brushes her hair, in the morning, at her dressing table. I sense the morning light by the brightness of the room and the unlit candles. All that reflected light bouncing off the white walls, pale textiles and the mirror itself. There is eagerness in her eyes for the day ahead I feel.....

The oil painting is titled: At the Dressing Table - 1909.
Before she painted this self portrait, at the age of 25, she had studied with Ilya Repin and Osip Braz, spent time in Italy (1902 - 1903) and attended the Academie de la Grand Chaumiere in Paris 1905 - 1906.
Zinaida was born in 1884 on the estate of Neskuchnoye near Kharkov (now Kharkiv, Ukraine) into one of the most refined and artistic families in the Russian Empire.
You can read more details about her life HERE including her battles, sacrifices and heartaches (taking note of where and when she appears in history) as she tried to make a living, for herself and her family, from her artistic practice.

A couple of years ago, the image below, popped up on my FB feed on the Female Artists in History page. Instantly I recognised the women as Moroccan, loved the loose and proficient style of the artist's pastel sketch and searched for more of her work online. What a delight to find out this was Zinaida Serebriakova's work AND that she had visited Morocco on two occasions - 1928 and 1932.

Here are more of Zinaida's excellent pastel drawings from Morocco - lively depictions of individuals, and she certainly honours the individual; clothed in their everyday dress, quietly sitting for their portraits. She captures the unmistakable light of Morocco; whether blazing and bouncing around a market square or filtered through greenery in a Riad courtyard.

I'm attracted by her compelling combination of expressive lines;
depicting contour, decoration, volume.....

Notice the way she works the pastel using it's side or point and also blending,
probably with her fingers, to achieve a more painterly effect and bring intensity to the faces. Lovely colours in the skin, working all their tonal values to achieve form and likeness.

I encourage you to research more of her work and techniques.
Her oil paintings are beautiful, I specially like the family portraits....

Also the way her pastel drawing style is evident in her handling of oil paints;
there is the active brush line, used both wet and dry, and the strong contour.

I believe, a portrait made in the midst of another culture, in a traditional house (dar, riad or kasbah) or market place (souk), carries not just observations from sight, but the line created in time, holds sounds, smells, textures; sensory memories that enhance and deepen the drawing experience for the artist, and also in the end, the seeing experience for the artist's audience.
There are opportunities on my tours for portrait sessions - if you request them. These are always significant experiences for everyone involved. For example, if we draw en plein air, our sitter can translate the comments that passers-by make (sometimes very witty). Also the ever inquisitive children, who huddle and whisper quietly behind you, have the opportunity to glimpse a process they may long to emulate. It's also fun!

Any of my tours can include portrait sessions. Feel free to contact me via my Contact Page if you would like to arrange these for yourself and friends, perhaps your painting or craft group.
You can work in whatever medium you feel comfortable with. It doesn't have to be drawing or painting. It can be photography or work with fibres and textiles, even inspiration for jewellery.

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Morocco's Donkey Hair Artisans' Brushes

14/7/2019

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If you're an artisan in Morocco and work with a brush, it's more than likely that you made it yourself. I've been making some very make-shift ones lately and so have my workshop participants - mainly for mark-making and interesting effects. But if you want brushes for the more precise work that I've witnessed in the studios here, then you need to have learnt special skills and practised to achieve the perfect tool for your job.

My first encounter with the handmade brushes of Morocco was in 2014, when my students and I participated in a Zouaq Workshop - decorative painting on wood.
Our teacher, Mohamed Ben Abdelwahid, is also a "dab hand" at making brushes.
I had the pleasure of watching him quietly work with the simplest of tools and materials: donkey hair, thread, sticks and a knife. He presented all twelve of us with one of these perfect tools, to paint the beautiful designs he'd prepared for us.....

When the exquisitely restored Secret Garden opened in Marrakech in 2016, they employed the Zouaq Maalem (master decorator), Hicham Bahia, to embellish the timber surfaces with floral designs. I witnessed him in action, up on the scaffolding, with his handmade brush and pots of colour, diligently working away. He was single-handedly adorning the entire inside surface of the garden's pagoda centrepiece! Today, you can sometimes watch him working on a smaller scale; creating unique, single panels for sale in their boutique. One of his trusty handmade brushes is pictured below...

In Fes, when you take the time to explore their ceramic workshops, you'll find the artisans make a very particular donkey hair brush; a large head of donkey hair, designed to hold the maximum amount of glaze. In the centre of this mass are a few longer hairs that make the strokes, designed to feed the glaze smoothly and consistently through many strokes before the brush needs replenishing.
The brush in action below; the artisan creates the black outlines of the design...

The same brushes (a brush for each colour) used here to fill in the shapes
with different coloured glazes...

Beautiful work ready for final firing. These high quality pieces are from the northern city of Fes.

These tools below, are not meant to be anywhere near the quality of the donkey hair brushes above. For our purposes, we are not wanting control over a line or a design.
Instead, these make-shift brushes that we create in my workshops, are about the
pleasure of working with our hands and manipulating locally sourced natural fibres.
Here in Morocco, specially in the south, the date palms are a fabulous source of raw materials.
In Essaouira, we add the plentiful Madagascan raffia.
Dipped into black ink, or Aswik (walnut) ink, they create unique marks.
Allowing our brushes to write, dance and create their own language on the paper is the aim.

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Schrodinger's Cat Paradox - some thoughts from guest blogger: my mother, Hazel.

5/6/2019

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In order to understand/ get your head around what is happening with Schrodinger's Cat I think you need to put the whole experiment into a larger context..........the following is my explanation of what the larger context might look like.

We know from quantum experiments that everything in the universe is composed of atoms, including us. We also know that the observable world, or the accumulation of atoms that make up the observable world is not always what we think it is. For example the colours we see are not inherent in the objects observed, science would suggest they have no colour until they are illuminated by white light from the sun containing the full colour spectrum. The atoms of the object either absorb or reflect certain wavelengths of light and these are picked up by the human eye and brain which interprets the information as certain colours.
We learn to name these perceptions when we are young. This interpretation is done by the rod and cone mechanism in the brain. However we know through further experimentation that there are more colours involved in the colour spectrum than those we can perceive with our eyes and brain. We know there is infra red and ultra violet light which we can only see with the help of instruments. There may be more that we don't yet know about.
We have a similar limitation with sound. It would seem that as humans we can only perceive a certain range of sounds, even though we now know, through research, that there are other sounds at the upper and lower range of frequencies that animals can hear and we can't. There may also be a case for saying that our sense of smell, taste and touch are likewise limited to within a particular bandwidth due to the limitation of the receptors in our brain.
It would seem that these limitations vary between ourselves and the animal kingdom. Maybe brain size is not so important but rather how well it is configured for the survival of the particular species. There is evidence now that birds have receptors in their brains that allow them to navigate on their annual migrations via the earth's magnetic field. We don't know if we, as humans, have this capability. It is seems to be a skill outside the limits of our brain's anatomy.

If we extrapolate from these notions of limitation to our perceptions of the world then we could say that there are a whole range of possibilities 'out there' that are unknown to us and that we are only aware of in a limited form and a one dimensional opinion. If we think about something as mundane and predictable as the sun rising every morning. For most of us it is comfortable to think that it rises in the east and sets in the west. However if we think about it a bit more we realise that it is only true if we position our place of observation on this planet. If we move our point of observation to the moon or beyond we now know that in fact the sun only rises from the perspective of the earth, from further out in the universe it is easily observed that the earth turns on its axis towards the sun, the sun doesn't move around the earth, (this was considered heretical thinking at one period of history). Whether the sun rises above a fixed point in the morning or the earth turns to face it, is therefore a matter of perspective.

It would seem that everything we perceive within our limited perceptual framework is subject to comparison and relatedness. We seem to be innately programmed to make contrasts. We cannot perceive darkness unless we know about light, we cannot understand wetness without knowing dryness or good without evil, etc etc. We seem to need to define opposites to bring our perception into focus, we are constantly making judgements , consciously or not to understand our world. We seem to be 'hard wired' to do this and it may be part of our survival mechanism to decipher what is a threat to our existence and what will benefit our development. We learn, develop and refine this process throughout our lives.
We could easily say that we are 'constrained' by our own interpretation of the limited information that comes in through our nerve cells………... and we don't know that we are constrained. Our view of the world or our focus of attention may be a bit like a torch beam or a searchlight in the dark. If we are the carrier and director of the torch we can perceive what the light focuses on, but we are oblivious to what else is beyond our beam of conscious attention. There is a theory in quantum physics and some branches of philosophy, that the very act of focusing our attention on something brings it into being, or at least recognition, like moving the torch around in the darkness. This then begs the question, did we create it with our beam of consciousness or did it exist already and we just highlighted it, or is it both, in that what we perceive already existed and we not only highlighted it, but also defined it, differentiated it, judged it and categorized it to make it understandable.
Which brings us back to Schrodinger's cat. Maybe the cat in the box is in a state like the darkness beyond our torch beam of consciousness, it may be there but until we see it or hear it and pass judgement on it we cannot say if it is alive or dead. It is in a state which is undifferentiated by observation by our consciousness. However, it does not mean that the cat isn't in some 'state' but just one that we have not yet categorized and therefore recognised as either dead or alive.
Taking into account the bigger picture behind this paradox is to my way of thinking the way to make some sense of the puzzle, it is the hypothesis of a possible explanation, and, as with all hypotheses, is open to destruction.

To have glimpses of the bigger picture it helps to observe our thoughts, the stream of consciousness which flows continuously through our mind via our brain cells firing and which interacts with the incoming information from our senses. It is so continuous and all pervading inside our head that we are mostly consumed by it. We think we are 'it'. We construct our own reality and filter our view of the world through it. It is sometimes called 'the stream of consciousness'. If we meditate or find a peaceful setting and cease the chatter inside our head it is possible to observe the workings of this stream and to realise that we are not just this stream but something outside of it and we can in fact be an observer, not a simple task but a rewarding one. The stream appears to 'happens' to us because we are in this molecular body structure and this state of consciousness. How much of it is simply ruminations of accumulated life experiences and thought processes and how much of it may come to us from 'outside of our torch beam ' is a point of much speculation. There have been recent discoveries of higher level processing cells in the brain called microscopic tubules which may well prove to provide an interface for access to another state, which at a more gross cellular level we have no knowledge of. We may be connected to it through our DNA, who knows it may even dictate our Karma!

So……. given that it would seem we have our limitations of perception and that we seem to be hard wired to differentiate and make judgements, it is easy to see why, on first encounter, the paradox of Schodinger's cat exists.
Those are my thoughts on the subject….for what they are worth.

Hazel.

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2019 - 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair - Marrakech

5/3/2019

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Readers of this Blog will remember my post from the first
1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair in 2018.

In February I travelled into Marrakech for the day, for this years' fair -
once more held amid the elegance of La Mamounia.

1:54 CAAF appears to be filling the vacuum left by the now defunct Marrakech Biennale,
by offering visitors satellite exhibitions in the many art galleries in the Red City.

Here I'm sharing what inspired me at La Mamounia -
amongst the African artists represented by 18 international galleries...

D U K E A S I D E R E

Born 1961 in Lagos, Nigeria. Lives and works in Lagos, Nigeria. Represented by Retro Africa.

M A H I B I N E B I N E & H A S S A N D A R S I

These collaborative works were made from tar and pigment on aluminium.
Mahi was born in Marrakech in 1959 and Hassan in Casablanca in 1961.
Represented by Katharina Maria Raab.

P I N I A N G

"Power and the City 1 and 2" - Cardboard, acrylic and charcoal collage on wire.
Born 1976 in Dakar, Senegal where he continues to live and work.
Represented by Louisimone Guirandou Gallery

N ' D O Y E D O U T S

"Magnetique 01" - Acrylic and pastel on canvas
Born 1973 in Sangalkam, Senegal. Lives and works in Paris, France.
Represented by Louisimone Guirandou Gallery.

M A U R I C E M B I K A Y I

Unique pieces created from computer keys, fibreglass and resin.
Maurice was born in Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo
and now lives and works in Cape Town, South Africa
Represented by Officine Dell'Immagine

D I M I T R I F A G B O H O U N

"Paul - Guillaume, Microcosmos II" - bronze, wood and glass.
Born 1972 in Cotonou, Benin. Lives and works between Cotonou, Paris and Brussels.
Represented by Galerie Cécile Fakhoury.

"Arman was NKissi N'kondi" - bronze, wood and glass.

On the wall behind you can glimpse the mixed media work of Armand Boua, on the left.
He was born in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire and continues to live and work there.
On the right - a mixed media piece by Yéanzi, also from Côte d'Ivoire.
Represented by Galerie Cécile Fakhoury.

F A T I H A Z E M M O U R I

"Suspension" - graphite on drafting film.
At first sight I thought this work was under a layer of encaustic wax medium.
In fact she had reversed the drawing before adhering it to a panel.
A soft milky finish was the result, adding to the sense of suspension in space.
Represented by Katharina Maria Raab.