ASWAN AND OTHER WATERCOLOUR SKETCHES

Finally we reached Aswan where further navigation down the Nile is prevented by two dams. Our boat moored opposite Elephant Island in Aswan. The Island is one of the oldest parts of Aswan and the whitewashed houses looked like something you might find in a Greek Mediterranean fishing village. It looked particularly inviting in the morning sun – so, always weak to temptation, I went on deck to get something down on paper.

Next to our boat, town dwellers waited for the ferry to the island. There are still many rickety ferries on the Nile, but the Egyptians are building new bridges and unfortunately their days seem numbered.

Now I am back home, I have been looking over my sketches and here is another one of the many fishermen among the reedy islands, one I didn’t publish at the time.

And here is the riverside as we approached El Minya with it’s boat building and repair yards that you also see elsewhere, all the way down the river.

I think that is almost all of the sketches. I gave a few to our guide, Salah, who was always checking out what I was doing, but what remains are a reminder of a super trip.

As I said in an earlier blog, painting a scene on a moving boat requires a special approach, as getting what you need down before it’s gone demands speed and a disregard for too much detail – probably not a bad thing in my case.

Other landscapes, townscapes and riparian scenes are available for sale on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

KOM OMBO AND EDFU – WATERCOLOUR SKETCHES

For me, Monday was a red letter day on this trip. In the afternoon we moored up right next to this temple at Kom Ombo, so for once I was able to sketch some of the architecture we had come to see. It is quite a late temple by Egyptian standards being started in the 2nd century BC. A giveaway is the ornate column tops which indicates Greek or Roman influence. In fact it had a whole range of column decoration. It is also unusual in that it is dedicated to two deities, the falcon headed Horus and Sobek, the local crocodile headed god. There were a lot of crocodile mummies on display in the museum – though, disappointingly, none in the river ( crocs not mummies).

I returned to the boat after the visit to the temple and museum and had about an hour to get this down. The warm evening light mellowed the stonework and I got a fair bit done before we set sail again, though I had to do the sketch in a rush.

On that same Monday, we woke up to find we had moored right on the waterfront of the town of Edfu. Normally we moored in walled areas or in out of the way and uninteresting places. On this morning we were right in the thick of it with touristy horse drawn carriages transporting people to the local temple of Horus. ( though being in the thick of it meant we were also close to the mosque, and got called to prayer at 5am – on this occasion I declined the invite) I had breakfast and hurried up on deck to get a flavour of the place before we set off. Again, another hurried sketch, which I finished as we headed to Kom Ombo.

Other townscapes are available on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

DAYS ON THE NILE – WATERCOLOUR SKETCHES

At last we made it to Egypt and are slowly making our way down the Nile from Cairo to Aswan. I would like to take my painting gear on our visits to the sights, but I am never sure how much free time there is available. I could have done the Sphinx which had great form in the early morning light, but other visits have been more busy. So, I have limited myself to painting as we proceed down the Nile. The sketch above was done shortly after we set off one morning.

This one was up near Cairo with some guys fishing. They put their nets out and set about thrashing the reeds and banking with their oars to scare the fish into their nets.

Painting on a moving boat entails, for me, getting a brief sketch down as you pass and then painting what you remember of the scene, finishing the sketch about 10 miles down stream from where you started.

Still, it’s a great way to fill the day.

Other landscapes are available for sale on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com