The view from here

The field next to his aunts house, as I paint I am surrounded by a moving carpet of red beetles, yet only the ants climb into the paints, I sit on an old chair and paint so can't go too far, their is no need when it all looks this lovely though.

The village sits high up on top of a mountain, the view above is from his aunt's veranda, she spends the weekdays looking after her grandchildren and returns at the weekend, the house is big and was part of a farm, but it is sadly falling into disrepair, her husband died of cancer many years ago and she had 3 girls all of whom have flown the nest. It looks idyllic, but if this painting had sound all you would hear is the constant bickering from a neighbouring house!

This is the view from Emin's house, on the front veranda, I have used considerable artistic license and removed the junk yard that is attached to yet another smallholding lived in by a very deaf old lady, the same old lady that proclaimed she had goats in her garden prettier than me!

This is the view to the right of Emin's house, sadly the mountains have bleached out but on a clear day they rise up majestically.

Down a small lane, 10 minutes walk away is this view, they are all of the sea around here, there are places where the entire horizon is just sea, it gives the landscape a wonderful hazy glow when the sun is out.

This is a heavily reworked painting I sat in the garden of a house that has just been built on the outskirts of the village, it overlooks the valley, across to another village. During the call to prayer there is a small time delay which allows the call to echo across the valley, it is rather beautiful and something I would like to capture on tape. Emin apparently owns a scrubby patch of land down there!

Finally there is a scrubby field 5 minutes away where plants have reclaimed once ploughed land, I love the colours of all the different tress, although I never got to grips with that ethereal silvery beauty of olive trees. I would love to return at Easter one year to see the flowers too.

I painted double this but these I felt were the better ones, they are visual notes for me to paint from, rather than accurate representations, I am also conscious that I use watercolours like oil and often layer them up rather than allow the paper to create light. I half wished I had taken pastels too, but I like the way just using paint forced me to mix colours and focus on how the light changes colour almost every second of the day.

The second week was more rewarding than the first, simply because I finally warmed to the subject and got to know the colours better, I'm going back next year, but perversely will probably approach the project from another point of view using a different media.