I never tire of sketching pieces of this set of china that we bought in Cambodia many years ago. They often appear in my sketches (see No.1957) and I love that deep ultramarine colour.
Fri-14-Mar-2025
100-3028 – Fish bowl
Cambodia
87-2710 – Three for three
These three little glasses/cups come from three different countries that I have had the privilege of working in. The one at the back is a tea glass from Turkey (not actually bought when I was there last year), the glass on the left is a tea glass from Cambodia (nothing posh but the most basic type made from recycled glass) and the cup on the right comes from a set of espresso coffee cups from Syria.
Wed-29-May-2024
85-2649 – Our cats the destroyers
This pot (from Cambodia) has featured in many of my sketches around our home. Unfortunately the other day one of our cats knocked it off the table. I am now in the process of gluing it back together …not quite Kintsugi (the Japanese art of repairing broken objects)…but at least we will be able to use it again.
Tue-9-Apr-2024
75-2408 – Laxfield elephant
Here is the first sketch I did on our trip to the UK – done at Laxfield House, where my mum stays, while we were visiting. I am not sure what type of plant that is, but the elephant was something I bought back from Cambodia. It’s a huge china pot stand, actually made in Vietnam – which I remember hand carrying all the way back to the UK. It’s amazing they let me take it as hand carry and also amazing that it didn’t break!
Mon-3-Jul-2023
04-345 – Wat Sarawan
Here is another sketch from my Cambodia archive. This one was done in pencil and pastel – my favourite media at the time. Obvously I did a lot of sketching in temples when I lived there – I always found them to be lovely peaceful and quiet places.
Nov-1993
03-310 – Almost a storm over a pink house
Here is another sketch from my archives. When I lived in Phnom Penh, I used to go out on Sundays on my bike and sketch some of the interesting houses in the area where I lived. This was before the city became much more developed and crowded…when there were still old wooden houses in the centre of the city. I am not sure if that is the case anymore.
Sun-20-Jun-1993
04-352 – The Bayon
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
04-362 – Prasat of suor prat
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
1852 – Polishing the silver
This ladle and slice are something we were either given or bought in Cambodia (my terrible memory), but yesterday we used them to serve something and I realised how tarnished they are. So I decided to give them a polish. I’m not really sure if they are silver, but they shine up nicely.
Tue-21-Sep-2021