75 Days to Go!

Inukshuk at Whistler

Watercolour

©2009 Charlene Brown

Here’s another one of the huge inukshuks built on Whistler Mountain for the Olympics – which open in just 75 days! This one is further down the mountain than the inukshuk I wrote about February 19 and the view is in the opposite direction. Whistler Village can be seen in the valley, as well as one of the golf courses at the base of Blackcomb, some of the lower ski slopes and the top of the luge run.

Graphic Novel Artwork II

Prologue

InDesign document containing digital photomontage

©2009 Charlene Brown

I’ve been working on a comic book aka graphic novel – a fictionalized combination of some of my travel painting and workshop painting stories. Thinking that feedback from readers who are artists and illustrators would be helpful, I decided to do WIP posts on this blog. I had a lot of trouble actually getting started – until I realized there’s no rule saying you have to start at the beginning!

Finally, on September 6, I began by posting ‘Chapter 3: Calgary to Bishkek.’ After that, I worked through the plot of the story from the beginning and realized there was more than two chapters’ worth of stuff before they left Calgary.

So, I wrote this Prologue, and the Chapter formerly know as 3 became ‘Chapter 4: August 8, 2003.’ The September 6^th posting has been revised accordingly. It occurs to me that this disjointed approach isn’t really conducive to discussion, but would love to hear any comments or questions you have about these fragments of my graphic novel.

Have you been here?

St. John’s, NL

Watercolour

©2009 Charlene Brown

Have you been here? I haven’t, but the province of Newfoundland and Labrador is definitely on my bucket list.

In the meantime, I’ve pieced together some pictures of the provincial capital, St. John’s – Signal Hill, the harbour, the colourful houses, and the icebergs that occasionally get this far south – unimpeded by any realistic knowledge of how they actually line up.

Exploring Roman Africa II

Ptolemais, Libya

Watercolour and computer painting

©2007 Charlene Brown

Originally one of the five cities of the 7^th Century BCE Libyan Pentapolis, Ptolemais was conquered by Alexander the Great in the 4^th Century BCE (and passed to his General, Ptolemy - hence the name), and conquered by Rome in the 1^st Century CE. Ptolemais was the site, in 301 CE of an early attempt at wage and price controls – Diocletian’s Edictum De Pretiis – overlaid, in this computer painting, on the background of a watercolour of the site.

As with yesterday’s post about paintings of Tunisia, this painting was completed a couple of years ago following a University of Victoria travel study program, Exploring Roman Africa. Ive just been to a Travel Study 2010 presentation this afternoon to see what the university is planning for the next year.

I’ve added these North African paintings to my website www.painteverymountain.ca along with a painting of Peru which I posted on June 18.

Exploring Roman Africa I

Zaghouan Water Temple

watercolour and ink

©2007 Charlene Brown

I’ve just been adding some paintings to my website www.painteverymountain.ca These were completed a couple of years ago following a University of Victoria travel study program, Exploring Roman Africa. This one, which shows the ruins of the source of the Romans’ water supply in the Tunisian mountains, was done using photographs. Another painting, shown below, used a sketch I painted on the archaeological site at Uthina, as cameras were not allowed at this on-going dig. It shows the ruins of the temple, the amphitheatre and, in the distance, surviving parts of the aqueduct from Zaghouan to Carthage. Tomorrow I’ll post a painting of a Greek/Roman site in Libya.