Here is another painting from my days in Cambodia. I was lucky enough to be able to visit the Angkor temple complex several times, and have the time to sketch and enjoy the atmosphere, in a time when there were not many visitors. This one is of the Bayon temple, famous for the 216 gigantic serene looking faces.
Sun-2-Jan-1994
Here is another one from the archives – a sketch of a temple entrance in Phnom Penh. This was done in a combination of pencil, ink and watercolour pencils.
Aug-1993
Here is one from the archives – this is one of a series of 12 towers, along the eastern side of a royal square in Angkor Thom – part of the Angkor Wat complex of temples near Siem Reap in Cambodia. I drew this in ink with a dip pen and then used chalk pastel for the colour.
Tue-4-Jan-1994
I haven’t been able to sketch today, but here is one from the past, done in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. I think this was done near where I lived.
Sun-8-Aug-1993
Here is my sketch for day 6 of #WorldWatercolorMonth – the subject being “flow”. I was thinking of pouring things, hence the jug, but the fishes on it also fit into that idea. We have a complete set of china with these fish – bought in Cambodia, but made in Vietnam. It was relatively cheap but is simple, sturdy and beautiful.
Mon-6-July-2020
This little lacquered box is something my wife was given when we finished working in Cambodia. When we lived there you could buy beautiful (an inexpensive) lacquerware from the market – mostly made in Vietnam I think. This one features a Miro style painting (despite a quick google I couldn’t find one that actually looks like this). Inside we keep joss sticks which my wife burns when meditating…hence the (loose) connection with the #WorldWatercolorMonth theme of quiet!
Sat-4-Jul-2020
Here are a few more sketches from when I lived in Cambodia. These are just some views in my apartment done in 1997:
1. Some space: 19-Feb-1997
2. Tomorrow will be good: 24-Jul-1997
3. Part way packed up: 15-Aug-1997
My old students in Cambodia asked for some drawings of the Bayon to print on a T-shirt, so that got me looking through my old sketchbooks. Here are the Bayon drawings I found.
I was lucky enough to spend 7 years living and working in Cambodia. For holidays I used to travel up to Siem Reap and spend a whole week just hanging about the temples and drawing. My drawings were bolder and I used less ink back then…inspiration for changing for what I do now. I’ll be posting a few more from Cambodia and other times in batches….
I picked out a few random souvenirs to paint (in ink, watercolour and watercolour pencil) today – a pipe from Cambodia, coral (which I really shouldn’t have) from the Philippines and a little prayer wheel from Bhutan. They all turned out to be brown or variations of yellow and orange – that didn’t make this easy!