Wednesday, August 31, 2016

One more for the Bucket List

Ballooning over Bagan
Watercolour and crayon
Charlene Brown

As I mentioned in a post at the beginning of this month, I’m starting a ‘Bucket List’ PinterestBoard. Several of my Virtual Paintout paintings – of places I haven’t been to but would like to see – have found their way onto this board, and there will be paintings of photos, like this on in Myanmar, that I've come across on the internet – often on other people’s Pinterest Boards.

Apparently, this fantastic sunrise shot can only be obtained from a hot-air balloon and it seems to be impossible to take the picture without including all the other folks out in balloons doing the same thing.  I could have left them out of the painting, of course, but chose not to.  And I’ll probably include a sunrise hot air balloon ride in my itinerary when I eventually get to Bagan…  I’ve tried ballooning a couple of times, in Sedona, Arizona and the Masai Mara in Kenya, and it is truly an other-worldly experience. 

Update: There were several casualties, including at least four fatalities, and many of the temples, pavilions and pagodas were damaged in the earthquake that hit Bagan a week ago – a sad set-back in the on-going restoration of this UNESCO World Heritage site.