invitations

Brunch at Eloisa's.

And friday lunch at Mariéme's home to meet her dad and family.

Mariéme has now been working at Sinaa for three years, everybody likes her and she's enjoying a lot the new home of the gallery. Here we are in her room with her sisters and cousin who's braiding her hair.

Sketchbooks exhibition, Almada, Portugal

 Opening of the exhibition of sketchbooks "Diarios Gráficos em Almada" in Almada, Portugal at the Museu da Cidade, the  29th January 2011 at 5 pm.
From the 29Th January until the 16th of April 2011.
Tuesday to Saturday from 10 am to 6pm.
Closed sundays, mondays and bank holidays.

Open publication - Free publishing - More grafico

Almada is just across Lisbon on the other side of the river, don't miss it if you're in Portugal.

Thirty authors, four hundred sketchbooks.

Marrakech places

Jardin Majorelle

A beautiful and amazing garden and house that will soon be hosting the Museum of Art Berber made up from the collection of  Pierre Bergé and Yves Saint Laurent who were the last owners of this beautiful place designed by the French painter Jacques Majorelle in 1924.

The amazing Gallery I Ministero del Gusto in the heart of the Medina by Italian architect Fabrizio Bizarri

a good article about the house and the duo that created in design for life (in english

In the Medina

This flickr member from Spain took my photo sketching Abdullah while he showed us how he made chess pieces out of olive tree green wood using this manual system.

and the detail.

Marrakech people

Jema'a el Fna, the famous square in Marrakech where you'll find thousands of people drifting around and checking the performances or having dinner at all the many food stalls that are put up and taken down each evening.

Hicham asked to be drawn. In his hand he held two wooden boxes that as you open a wooden snake pops out, he's trying to sell them. When I finish he gets his mp3 from his pocket and asks if I can added it to the sketch. -And don't forget to add the pink into my sport suit he says as he leaves! 

 Odds and bits from my bedroom window.

The monkey man and a quite corner inside the Medina.

 The friends of Hicham that also wanted to be sketched and the drummer boy that got himself and myself into trouble when one of his companions caught me sketching on his request. The man thought I would be making money from my sketch and started screaming his head off. When the drummer said he had asked for it the other started pushing him around and told me he was going to fire him... all ended well. I didn't pay for my sketch and the drummer didn't get fired.

Casablanca airport waiting to board our flight,.
My paper is coming off so weird in my scans that I did a bit of playing with photoshop in the previous images.

New Year in the desert

On the early morning of the 31st we left Nouakchott and went to the north-east of Mauritania to the region of Adrar.
We were meeting other friends at Tergit a small oasis that has a water source and date palms.
In this sketch you can see how a bucket is used to collect the water that drips from the stalactites and which from time to time someone comes to drink.
As our friends had a pinched wheel and got stuck in the sand we spent more time here than meant and I used it to draw a bit more.
Tergit is specially popular during the summer months because is the only place (I know) in Mauritania that stays cool and people come to have a tea or a meal and children will bath in the small water tank. Summer its also the time of the "guetna" when the dates start getting ripe and people return from the big city to do cures of dates, when eating the slight green ones will do wonders to your digestive system.
Unfortunately at this time of the year the weather is great - like an english summer - but there are only dry dates available.

 

Young boy with the Plateau behind him. This villages don't have electricity or a water system.

Isselmou is a seller. We woke up in the first day of 2011 as he was preparing tea and had set up his wares neatly over a piece of black cloth. Necklaces and bracelets in silver, ebony necklaces and bracelets made of sheep horns with metal incrustations, colourful teapots hand painted by women and beautifully decorated wooden boxes. He knew Point-Afrique was having a couple of flights coming in with tourists (even if most of the area is considered a no go area by foreigner diplomacy) that would be either trekking or discovering the area by car and that would be happy to take home a souvenir of their holidays.

 

 New year stuck in the sand. After taking away a lot of sand from under the car we made a small road with flat rocks in front of each wheel and got it easily out.

Having lunch by the side of a pool who has water all year around and is surrounded by lots of greenery.
One of the lady sellers who came from the nearby village of M'heiret decided to wash her feet using the hard rock to scrub them. And bellow our last tea on the side of the road before reaching Nouakchott.

Bellow you can see all this area that is known as the land of stones because of its plateaus. Yellow, reddish sand mixes itself with the dark rocks and as this year it rained very heavy water pools were still left in some areas. The trees are green, tiny flowers are surrounded by white spotted butterflies and the camels hump is full of fat. A good year as there will be lots of milk.

The last sketch I made it during our last tea and meal by the side of the road on our way back to Nouakchott. A wonderful end and beginning of year in peace.

Min the wonderful guide invited by our friends and who made our journey special.