happy new year

 Wishing you'll a happy New Year. Health and peace for all and the World.
This is a sketch I did in the Western Sahara refugee camps at Tindouf, Algeria
. Women got together and celebrated the new year. Hope that soon they'll be able to celebrate in a place that they can  call home. To find out more about these women and see the sketches I made click here.

Mali

Mali

the river Niger

Five days only at Bamako, Mali's capital and I loved it, the people, the country, the fine work of their artists.

Sahara, portraits sketches from Nouakchott to Tindouf

 I had another go at digital publishing and you can now visit my second book at issuu. I couldn't post it directly to my blog, probably due to my lack of hability in tech so you'll have to click here to be able to see it.

Casamance, Senegal

Two "talibés" and dotted chicken

fromager

river

cook and a cow

butcher table and barmaid

airport and first impressions

Some old sketches on brown paper from a visit to Casamance in Senegal a few years ago.

Western Sahara refugee camps

 feeding the camels

evening drink, trying to warm up

school

tea 

toys

 January 2008, I spent 5 weeks living in the refugee camps of the Saharaouis at Tindouf, Algeria.

Those women, men and children became my friends. I was there to draw the women and their activities in the camps, running schools, health centers, coops etc.

 The courage and the determination of this people even after spending 33 years in the camps waiting for a solution, its impressive. Morocco occupied their country as the Spanish left this colony in 1975. United Nations has from as far as 1974 been saying that the western Sahara should decide by referendum of their future... too many economical interests and a strong adversary have kept this people waiting in the refugee camps at Tindouf,  in Western Sahara where they're now a minority due to the colonisation of the area by Moroccans and spread a bit all over the world. To find more about them you can check the diary of my stay here.

stop over

I returned to Mauritania by plane with Royal Air Maroc, the day we left it was raining and as the plane took off (an old 48 places model) the man on the seat on the left had to stop a drip with his newspaper.



Arriving to Casablanca at 10 am I didn't have a plane to Nouakchott until that evening at 11.30pm, Royal Air Maroc had this great Hotel waiting for us, so we could rest and relax until take off.

Ancient Walata

Its from the end of the XIX century that those towns loose their importance becoming places that are hard to find. Until then they were placed in the trade routes and caravans of camels used to cross them. Today gouvernment efforts and a small tourist industry maintain some life in those places.



Walata, like Chinguetti and Wadane, is part of the World Heritage and a Unesco's site. For its inhabitants life use to go as always.



But Walata is special, as its unique in its decoration not exhisting anything like in the surrounding countries.



The red clay and the pigments are found all around the village being dug from mines.



Those small objects are toys and burners that women have been doing for centuries. Doll houses are also done you can see an example here.

Animals roam freely into the patios of the houses looking for bits to eat.

From early age young girls start helping their mum's and is a common sight to see them carrying their younger brothers or sisters in their backs.

This is the view you have from Walata looking across the dry river bed and into the heights. The rectangular building used to be know in the old dictator's time as a political prison where torture was practised and where many detractors died.

Sidi makes a cow with a bit of clay he wants to show as women that he can also master the work.

Walata

These are from a sketchbook I did in 2005 when I visited the ancient town of Walata in the East of Mauritania,1.300km from the capital, Nouakchott. Walata was a busy town from the XIII century until the XIX, as she was a place where the camel caravans coming from Timbuckt laden with salt had to pass.

What's amazing about this town is that each year after the rain season the women would repaint with her fingers the outside of the houses with elaborated drawings whose symbolisation is lost for most of todays inhabitants. Some of the inner rooms of the houses have alsopaintings covering the whole of the walls. In 2005 some people were already starting to use industrial paints instead of the natural coloured clays found in the region.

I'll post some more drawings in the next few days.

Sketchcrawl in Lisbon

Lisbon is a beautiful city still full of old neighbourhoods with plenty of things to catch your eye , plenty of dogs poos , as well, but then its not a perfect world.

Started sketching in the morning on my own and managed this two sketches around S. Bento before joining my two girlfriends for lunch.

I had made a call for sketchcrawling in Lisbon and the meeting place was Praça de Camões at 3pm. We were nine people in all.

Ana Pissarra http://anapissarra.blip.tv/

Monica Cid http://monicacid.blogspot.com

we were joined by three urbansketchers

José Louro http://ajaneladealberti.blogspot.com

Pedro Cabral http://bonecosdebolso1.blogspot.com

Richard Camara http://richardcamara.blogspot.com who was visiting ( he is portuguese but lives inSpain).

There were two girls and a young man but they didn't show up later at the meeting point, so I don't know who they were.

Some of the square seats were occupied by sketchers, others by people reading or resting, sun was up and the air chilly. ( freezing for my standarts!)

Richard Camara sketching and a church door in Praça Camões.

Ana had just come to take some photos and see who would show up and ended up buying a sketchbook in an art shop and having plenty of fun , borrowing everybody's pen's and watercolors.

Went to this gallery where a friend of Ana works and we all ended up sketching the show. I chose to draw an image of a screaming child while Monica chose to draw a face on the ritus of orgasm drawn in a bed sheet.

This was the last sketch of the day before meeting up to check our drawings and to have the extreme pleasure of having someone else's sketchbook in our hands.

Ana, Monica and I decided to end the day with a nice dinner and a play. We went to see William Shakespear but it was so dull that Monica and I spent the whole play ... SKETCHING!