A Moroccan Journey

"Certainly, travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living" Miriam Beard

 Travelling is one of my biggest pleasures in life as it widens experience and brings fresh new sources  of inspiration  for my paintings. I  love going to places that have a lot of variety, colour and contrast . Observing the different cultures and looking at the  world  from a different perspective and  being out of the normal routines of daily life. As well as allowing for flexilbility and unexpected changes of plan.  I even enjoy all that is part of setting off to a new destination  the preparation , packing and that feeling of eager anticipation at the airport.

A recent mother daughter trip to Morocco brought a wealth of inspiration and was full of  sensory delights with rich earth  colours , decorated tiles,elegant architecture  and bustling  street life.  We traveled over 1800km (1200 miles ) and passed through a landscape that varied from the Atlantic coast,olive and lemon groves forests,  ancient walled cities such as Fes to the dry heat of the Sahara desert.

Being surrounded by so much warmth, colour and new sensory experiences did much to lift my soul and reignite my creativity which has lessened over the last few months due to pressures of my elderly mother's illness. There were inspirational delights everywhere from the  beautifully presented plates of food , street markets with bowls of fruit and spices piled up into pyramids , women wearing brightly colored veils and kaftans , intricate metalwork on doors and decorated tiled fountains. I sketched , kept a journal of all the myriad of impressions, wrote haiku type poems and took numerous photographs to try to capture all that was of interest.  These notes and visual material provides a resource of ideas that will begin to form the basis of ideas that shall percolate into my work. 

Everywhere I go I see circles that inspire my circular themed paintings and Morocco had an abundance of this Universal symbol .There were circles in the buildings, pavements , pottery , fountains, windows and in particular the decorative tiled table tops which combined clear balanced design with jewel like colours.

Energized with my creativity flowing again I am now looking forward to see what emerges from all this Moroccan inspiration in the months to come...The echo of the red of Marrakech buildings; a curve of an arch, the pattern of a mosaic, the juxtaposition of old and new the expanse of the desert will be soon be interpreted and abstracted into new  paintings

"To paint... to travel... to combine the two... is to celebrate life." Jack R. Brouwer

There are more photographs from this memorable and inspiring trip to Morocco on my Flickr page 'Art is life Playing to other Rhythms'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/artistarabella/collections/72157627232738744/