Hello everyone!
A quick announcement-I’ll be at Artfest this upcoming weekend with all of my prints, cards, puzzles and original paintings. I’d love to see you there! FYI $5 to get in also let’s you into all the exhibits in the museum which is super cool!
Ok-now back to my SE Asia sketches!
Cambodia and Bangkok were both filled with gold and gold colored things. When I was picking out paint to bring with me on this trip, I thought quite a bit about tropical blues since we were going to be on a ship in a variety of seas and bays, but I never even thought about gold and boy did I wish I had brought some gold paint! My yellows sure got a work out!
The left side of this spread is the inside of the temple with the Jade Buddha (He’s the green figure way up top). Photos were not allowed but drawing was so I drew as fast as I could until we heard our guide start counting people to leave and then we tore out of the building and sprinted for our shoes and our group so as not to be left behind in the madness of the crowds at the King’s Palace.
The image on the right is a detail from a temple in Sihanoukville, Cambodia.
Just a small amount of the gold at the King’s Palace in Bangkok. What this doesn’t show is the THOUSANDS of tourists and the 103 degree temperatures with 88% humidity. This may have been the hottest I’ve ever been in my life.
Working on location at Wat Krom in Sihanoukville, Cambodia. The flags are because of an upcoming holiday.
The finished painting!
This is a composite of two scenes. One is the beach (with a very relaxed life guard), its wavy sidewalk and the trunk of the tree whose shade we were huddled under. Why is it wrapped in cables? I don’t know. These are the mysteries of visiting new places. The vehicle is a tuk tuk, a tiny three wheeled vehicle that was very popular in Cambodia. They are richly decorated outside with stickers and decals and inside with curtains and tassels. We rode in this particular tuk tuk along with a whole fleet of other tourists from our ship and I think it was the closest I have ever been to live Mario Kart. The roads are a mad house. There are little to no street lights or directions in Cambodia and everyone just goes as fast as they can while trying to not hit anyone else. It is very alarming but also exhilarating. Our driver offered us beers for the ride-I accepted a Coke. Dad took the beer-“Angkor” brand and his favorite of all of the beer brands he tried on the trip.
We had a day at sea and enjoyed not getting on a bus. We swam in the pool, walked around the deck and, of course, I painted.
Our room was comfortable for its compact size. We were grateful for the air conditioning whenever we returned sweaty and pink from our off the boat excursions. If you read my note, you see that we had housekeeping come twice a day and boy, did I enjoy getting used to that!
On our little private deck, adding paint to sketches done on location. When traveling with a group, it is had to complete a full painting since I need to keep up. There was a lot of drawing “in the field” on this trip but not a lot of painting. I would add paint when we got back to the ship if I wasn’t too wiped out and used sea days to catch up-our schedule was packed!
Another thing I got used to very fast-having a cadre of chef cooking delicious food for me and I didn’t even have to wash the dishes! Luxurious!
As we left Cambodia and headed toward Vietnam and our first port, Ho Chi Minh City, we passed through what seemed to be a channel and it was full of barges and interesting boat traffic. This was painted just looking out the window of our ship as we sailed along-constantly changing scenery.
To come-Vietnam: Ho Chi Minh City, Da Naang and Ha Long Bay! To whet your appetite there is a food tour, a dragon bridge and incredibly magical karst limestone islands. See you there.