Gulf Island Artist Colonies

(click on image to enlarge)

Rainforest Rooster

Watercolour and crayon

©2013 Charlene Brown

A couple of weeks ago, the fundraising group I belong to at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria organized an art tour of Denman and Hornby Islands, just off the coast of Vancouver Island. Denman and Hornby are two of the Gulf Islands where enclaves of artists and artisans have lived and worked for many years – some since the back-to-the-land days of the Sixties. Our excursion included eight fascinating studios and galleries, some of which were located on tiny perfect farms buried deep in the forest, including that of world-renowned potter Gordon Hutchens  This work of art is Gordon’s henhouse. 

Seth Godin wrote an article recently, You should buy the book  Reading this – I read just about everything Seth Godin writes – reminded me that I should be flogging the book I have just written, Plein air painting: the drama… You should buy it.  Well, at least have a free look inside it on Amazon

Virtual Paintout in Lido di Jeloso

(click on image to enlarge)

Via Roma Destra Bridge

Watercolour and crayon

©2013 Charlene Brown

The Virtual Paintout is in Lido di Jeloso, near Venice, this month – a much smaller area than is usually included. I thought there might be a certain uniformity to the pictures painted, but  found there’s a wonderful variety of subjects… Have a look  

I think this bridge at the corner of Via Roma Destra and Via Cristoforo Columbo is one of the prettiest Streetviews in town. Here is a link to it.

As I was drawing the bridge, I thought the fence was déjà vu all over again, but when I looked up the previous fence that I'd thought was so similar, I noticed the interior designs were circles and the over-all effect was only slightly similar.

Kim Jong Un is causing us to miss this place too!

(click on image to enlarge)

Seogguram Grotto

Watercolour and crayon

©2013 Charlene Brown

The Seogguram Grotto, Republic of Korea National Treasure No. 24, was designated a World Cultural Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1995. It was completed in 774 CE in conjunction with the Bulguksa Temple, during the famous Silla Dynasty – Ironically, considering the situation today, this was the dynasty that united the entire Korean peninsula a thousand years ago.

The grassy hill behind the entrance to the grotto shown near the top of the ravine in this picture covers the Rotunda, which contains some of the most highly regarded Buddhist sculpture in the world, including a Seokgamoni Buddha, the historic Buddha at the moment of enlightenment, that is almost five meters high.

Another place I was hoping to see this year

(Click on image to enlarge)

Haedong Yonggungsa Temple

Watercolour and crayon

©2013 Charlene Brown

After posting an etching of Palmyra, a Syrian archaeological site I have missed several chances to visit, I’m back trying to fill in for the missed opportunity to see South Korea later this year.

This temple is one of the fascinating places I’d heard about for the first time when I was researching South Korea’s ‘painting possibilities’ in Google Images. Unlike most Buddhist temples in Korea, typically built high in the mountains, Haedong Yonggungsa is spectacularly situated overlooking the East China Sea.  It was built in 1376, and is one of the major Buddhist temples in Busan.

Syria will have to wait too

(click on image to enlarge)

Palmyra

Etching

1994 Charlene Brown

Like last week’s painting of Seoul, this etching was done in anticipation of seeing the real thing – back when we lived in Dubai, and getting to Syria seemed pretty straightforward. Somehow, it never quite worked out, and the closest I got to Palmyra was a brief stopover in the Damascus airport on my way to Jordan.  Since returning to Canada I’ve missed a couple of chances to go back to the Middle East on university Travel Study Programs… and now, of course, going to Syria isn’t straightforward at all!

South Korea will have to wait

(click on image to enlarge)

Seoul

Watercolour and crayon

©2013 Charlene Brown

I am on the art tours committee, a volunteer fundraising group at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, planning and organizing day-trips up-island or to Vancouver, trips of four or five days duration further afield to, say, Alberta or Ontario, and really big tours every year or two to such places as the Hermitage in St. Petersburg or Cambodia, Laos, and Viet Nam in S.E. Asia. 

This year’s really big one, scheduled for November, was to go to South Korea and Japan, lead by the Gallery’s Curator of Asian Arts, Barry Till.  Then North Korea found its way into the headlines every day for about three weeks, and some of the people who had said they were interested in participating started stalling or even backing out.  So about a week ago we pulled the plug on the South Korean portion of the tour.   

At approximately the same minute, North Korea disappeared from the news…  Purely coincidence, of course, but I like to think we’ve contributed our bit to reducing tension in the world.

I’m disappointed we’ve had to make this decision (I think I’m the only one) as I was planning to join the tour, and I’d done some Google Image research on the painting possibilities in South Korea – mostly the temples, museums and gardens we were going to visit, but including a few cityscapes as well.  This painting of Seoul is a compilation of a few of them.

Virtual Paintout in Bulgaria

(click on image to enlarge)

Mosque in Smolevo

Watercolour

©2013 Charlene Brown

The Virtual Paintout is in Bulgaria this month.  It took almost no time at all to find this nicely composed Google Streetview of the hilltop village of Smolevo, with the Balkan Mountains in the distance. Here is a link to it  

I couldn’t help thinking Google was very lucky with their timing when they photographed this part of the country.  It looks like a pretty spectacular, and warm, late winter day.

Another twentieth century flashback

(click on image to enlarge)

Lake Louise

Watercolour monotype

©1996 Charlene Brown

I may have given you the impression I find Lake Louise somewhat less magical than Lake O’Hara in my blog post a few days ago. Let me explain.  

Part of the allure of Lake O’Hara is simply that it’s so hard to get to – the much more famous wonder of Lake Louise is easily accessible, and most of the millions of visitors to western Canada make a point to seeing it.  

The hiking and walking trails around and above the lake are never actually crowded, just because there is so much lakeshore and mountainside to accommodate them… but the parking lots are at least as bad as any shopping centre I’ve ever seen. There’s often entertainment as well, such as the Canadian Army Cadet pipe band that happened to be there the day we visited in 1996. And another thing... the north face of the glaciers visible from Lake Louise is much thicker than the ice on the other side of the mountain