Watercolour and oil pastel
©2018 Charlene Brown
In
Tunisia and Libya on a University of Victoria travel study program ‘Exploring
Roman Africa’ in 2006, I painted tiny sketches in a spiral-bound watercolour
book. Recently I have started expanding some of my favourites. Cyrene is one of
them.
Originally a Greek colony, situated in a lush
valley near the Mediterranean coast in eastern Libya, Cyrene was one of the principal cities in the Hellenic
world. It was Romanized and remained a
great capital until the earthquake of 365 CE. The agora is an excellent
illustration of the claim that more mosaics have been preserved in the Roman
provinces of North Africa than anywhere else in the empire, and the North African
mosaics exhibit more vibrant colours than their Italian counterparts.
