A day at Chora, with my friend Trici. Drawing, çay, lunch, and beautiful 14th century mosaics, it doesn’t get much better than this…
And of course we had to get nargile on the way home…
“Chora” Mixed Media on Paper, 2013
I believe I wrote a long post in the past about drawing at Buyuk Valide Han, so I will skip the details on the history of this place, but I couldn’t help sharing some photos from my last visit here. It is a great place to explore if you like peaking into what was once a Byzantine chapel and finding a workshop filled with nargiles and oil lamps.
“Suleymaniye Camii” Mixed Media on Paper
During my last stay in Istanbul, I climbed onto the roof of the Han and did a 4 hour drawing in the sun. I love this spot because the view can be drawn a million times and never gets old. It’s wonderful to watch the ferries in Golden Horn, while listening to the grinding from the workshops below, and talking to the ocasional tourist who comes up to enjoy the view. When my drawing was done, I wandered my usual way back through the Spice Bazaar and across the bridge to Karaköy and then to Beyoğlu. I had a wicked sunburn, but a good drawing, and an appetite for a summer of art making…
“Across the Golden Horn” Mixed Media on Paper, 2013
One of my favorite places to draw in Istanbul, is in karaköy, sitting by the Golden Horn and gazing across the water at Süleymaniye Camii. I have done countless sketches from this vantage point. Not only because the view is perfect for drawing, but there are also many comfortable places to sit, sip çay and eat a balık ekmek, a fish sandwich for 5 lira. During my recent visit to Istanbul I spent 2 afternoons by the water, watching the ferries dock and depart, listening to the gulls and drawing the scene I know so well.
Actually…I have already came and gone, but decided to disconnect from my life on the Internet for the most part of the trip. So, get ready….the following weeks with be filled with posts of my reunion with the country that I love. I left Istanbul over a year ago, and became fully intoxicated with the comforts of home. But after sometime, I longed for my home away from home. So when an acceptance letter came from Babayan Culture House, an artist in residency program in rural Kapadokya, my heart leapt and I packed my bags.
Here is the beginning of my journey, an eight hour layover in Moscow. In someways I don’t mind layovers, I can sketch, blog, have some coffee and a sandwich while I anticipate the following day and daydream about where I will be. It rained all day, but I was warm while I gazed outside and sketched the airplanes, deliriously tired, but happy.
Mavi Lale 