CUSCO – WATERCOLOUR SKETCHES

Cusco in Peru was once the centre of the Inca empire until 200 or so Spanish arrived and stripped them of all their gold in return for a strong dose of Christianity. In the process they took apart the Inca palaces in Cusco and built their own architecture on top of the Incan buildings. When the earthquakes eventually arrived the Spanish buildings fell down but the Incan buildings (or what remained of them prevailed)

Despite all this the centre of  Cusco is lovely with mixed  architecture, cobbled streets  and lovely squares. This is a corner of the main square with the Spanish arcades running around the outside. You can sit and watch the comings and goings in the main square from the bars and restaurants on the first floor of the buildings.

This is one of the smaller squares in the artist’s quarter. I sat on a bench and painted these guys who I thought were chewing the fat around a very dry fountain. As I worked I realised that each of them were selling something and had their goods laid out around the area. Someone even came around to sell me a painting.

Paintings rather than these rough sketches are on my website: grahammcquadefine art.com