The adventure begins…

Alexander Nevsky Cathedral

Watercolour and crayon sketch

©2014 Charlene Brown

Our University of Victoria Travel Study Program ‘Balkan Odyssey’ began in Sofia, Bulgaria on May 26 at this Orthodox cathedral. Our tour was to go through eight countries, so to help remember where I was, I made a habit of including flags in my paintings whenever there happened to be any – there are four Bulgarian flags in this one.

The architecture of the other two faith groups strongly represented in the Balkans, Roman Catholics and Muslims, found its way into several of the landscapes and cityscapes I sketched during the trip – but I didn't try anything as complex and hard to draw as this cross-domed basilica again!