We have a collection of these little ceramic candlesticks that we used to use in Cambodia in the days when it was more unusual for the power to be on than to be cut. I like to draw them as they have such a lovely deep blue glaze.
Thu-27-May-2021
This little marble carving is of part of the Bayon temple at Angkor Wat in Cambodia. I was lucky enough to live in Cambodia and visited Angkor many times, often sketching these Buddha faces – happy memories!
Mon-16-Nov-2020
This is a prayer wheel from Bhutan – you spin it in your hand to say prayers (which are inscribed on the barrel). As I was drawing this I thought of our old friend Chap Samoeun who passed away a few days ago. We worked with him in Cambodia for many year and loved his gentle and fun loving attitude to life – despite the incredible struggles he went though and survived during the Khmer Rouge years.
Tue-6-Nov-2018
I’ve never used this pipe – it was bought as a souvenir in Cambodia and is for smoking opium. It has a porcelain bowl and brass spout. As soon as I’d finished I thought of Magritte’s famous painting “The treachery of images” which is also called “Ceci n’est pas une pipe” (this is not a pipe). His reasoning was that he’d be lying if he said it was a pipe – because it’s only a representation of a pipe. So I’m kind of lying with my title!
Sun-30-Sep-2018
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….
Today I unpacked some old trunks and found our collection of knick-knacks from the various places we have worked. This wooden elephant is from Cambodia. I painted this using a dip pen and watercolours, plus some water soluble graphite pencil.
Here is a simple ink sketch of my first apartment in Phnom Penh with my trusty bike.
First sharing of some of my older drawings – starting with those done in Cambodia.