EDM # 47

EDM # 47 is to draw a challenge from this year that you didn't try before. I'm spoilt for choice because I found quite a few of the challenges too challenging! I've chosen # 18 draw the view from your window, for reasons that may now be obvious - it's a mess out there!

This is the house directly opposite ours seen from the bedroom. Up until this year the view was of a row of palm trees but for some reason the neighbours decided to have them all removed. There must have been over 15 trees removed by crane and truck which took the best part of two days. It actually took a while for us to get used to the glaring light reflecting off the walls! I've tried to capture something of the crumbling mess that was revealed. There are strange wires and pipes everywhere, so many in fact that I've had to leave most of them out or it would be confusing in the drawing. The curtains are always drawn but there is a lot of activity in the maids quarters downstairs. I've included the bin in the street at this is why the maids use the gate. Each house has their own bin and the refuse truck comes by every morning to empty them but despite that the maids fling the rubbish beside the bin, not in it, and a mound of rubbish covered in flies grows behind! There must be rich pickings for the cats as this bin in particular is hotly fought over.

I bought some graphite sticks recently and used a 2B stick to start the drawing. I thought these might be fab to use but I've found them disappointing for reasons I can't quite put my finger on. I changed to a 2B pencil for most of it with 3B for the darkest areas. It was a challenge in that I don't like to sketch and particularly scenes like this where there are so many details. Since I love details and can't stop myself from including them, I get around this by focusing on smaller areas. I'm not good at sketching either but as this progressed it seemed to become something in between a sketch and a drawing. I'm pleased that I've done it now as I can imagine in a few years, when I look back, it will remind me of how life was in our quiet street.

Water dispensers

Can there really be any more variations? You might be bored to tears but I thought this was quite a find!
















If they can make ones with footballs there must be plenty more designs out there! The quest continues...

Knickers with a twist

If you send your husband out to get some sexy lingerie, make sure you get your apostrophe s in the right place! I saw the sign and thought it was funny but I didn't notice the washing till I processed the photo! Mark and I went out for a walk along the corniche again today and I seem to see something new every time.









It was very cold and windy today but the winter is short and we've got to get the walks in while we can. After hibernating in the hot summer months everyone is out and about. I realised winter had arrived when I heard the quad bikes screeching at night and the motorbikes roaring during the day. A new sort of madness takes place on the roads with loads of superbikes racing or cruising around, slowing alongside cars with any attractive girls or doing long wheelies. (I'm still trying to take photos of these guys!) 2005 seems to be the Year of the Hummer. I swear these are taking over Kuwait. Did you know they come in metallic mauve and Barbie pink?

Merry Christmas!

Thanks very much to everyone for visiting and commenting on my blog - and thank you for inspiring me with yours! Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!

EDM # 46 holiday themed (part 2)

A more jolly one this time! 2B pencil. This is a little bag that held chocolate coins, bought a few years ago but I kept it. We don't have many tacky Christmas knick-knacks because for the last couple of Christmases we thought they'd be the last in Kuwait (and no point buying more things to pack). This week though, we needed to replace the Christmas tree lights and went to Salmiya Souk. It's a shopping mall but full of cheap clothes, shoes, and tacky toy shops where you can buy things like Teletubby mobile phones and mosque alarm clocks. Here's a snap I took there to show what Christmas is like in Kuwait - probably the same as most places around the world!



We found some lights here that would make John Travolta proud. Mark was quite taken with them so we went back for more (we've promised Alex a super duper Christmas tree next year - he's always so disappointed when we bring out our little fake tree!) I thought while I was there yesterday I may as well buy the turkey at the supermarket but the only ones they had were from Brazil with a label stating that they had been slaughtered with a sharp knife. I know the bird has been killed but I would rather not think about it every time I looked at it thawing out so I passed on that and went to the Sultan Centre this afternoon to get one from the US. I spent the morning sitting in traffic jams - I guess that is part of the tradition of Christmas too!

EDM # 46 holiday themed

I know this is an unconventional response to draw something holiday themed/Christmas but this was my first response and, after thinking about it, I think I'll go with it. I might have time to do something a bit more jolly in the next couple of days.

I do love Christmas but...to cut a long story short (and to try and keep out of trouble!) I think Christmas should be less about spending and more about giving. I've drawn a child's face as there are so many suffering around the world and Christmas should be a wonderful time for them. But sadly, Christmas day comes and goes, too much food and drink is consumed, too much money spent but the poor and the hungry are still poor and hungry.

Sorry for the depressing post, I'll try and get another drawing up in a day or two!

A walk along the corniche

I can't believe it's been a week since I last blogged but it has been fairly busy with keeping the house tidy for removals surveys and selling the car. It was sold today and I'm feeling a bit lost without it. I've loved two cars in my life and strangely the Hyundai was one of them - and me, the girl who, if she wins the lottery, wants to test drive every supercar she can! Koreans make cars for small people and that Sante Fe fitted me like a glove (and it had a great sound system!) Sigh.

Anyway, here are some photos from a walk Mark and I took along the corniche this week. We're having a really mild winter this year. It's still tee-shirt weather and perfect for walking although that is reported to change as of next week.


Mark recognised this bike from the Phoenix Bike Company in Shanghai.


A man poses for the camera with his 'hubble-bubble'.


One of the tackiest restaurant/bars I think I've seen. It's see-through, the windows are plastic, and the brick work is pretty hideous too.


Rubbish spelling! Actually the beaches are all full of rubbish left over from the previous nights gatherings - mostly cigarette butts, old food and plastic bottles. Groups of cleaners clean up every morning.


There is a huge feral cat population in Kuwait but there are no skinny ones in this area. This one looks like he's fishing!


This is the life!


Rich pickings with all the fast food restaurants lining the corniche.

Diffuser

This is a diffuser I used to use for burning essential oils. I originally intended to draw it for the EDM ceramic challenge so I finished it after drawing Paul's bell. I have trouble starting new things when there are others left unfinished. Mostly done with a B pencil with 3B in the darkest areas.

When I say I used to use it, it was to ward off evil spirits (the next door neighbour's) a few years ago but nothing relieves stress like the arrival of a removal van!

Fred and Ginger

It's that car again! It's the only thing we own here so we are trying to sell it before we leave. So yesterday we got it cleaned up to take a photo to put on a few noticeboards. I thought I would post it here too as you can see the oranges are ripening nicely. They are bitter and not like the sweet oranges you usually buy to eat but make a wonderful marmalade.

Since I last mentioned the two feral cats who live in our garden, much has changed! I've called them Fred and Ginger and they are looking nice and healthy. Fred is very vocal and comes out to see us every time we leave the house or he sees the cars pulling into the drive. Ginger always follows behind when she knows it's safe as she's much more timid than him. I really fear that she wouldn't last long if Fred didn't look out for her.



Here's Fred in mid-conversation helping me wash the car. He keeps so close to me that it's now impossible to take a photo of him from a distance! He's more like a dog than a cat! I really wonder what the difference is between a feral cat and a domestic one. I've started giving these two food (they are so sweet, even Mark doesn't mind!) and they can be quite picky! They are still only kittens and have been chased off our property by a large tom so they live in a hedge in the garden across from our drive where they stake us out. A couple of weeks ago I left the back door open and Fred came in. The back door leads up to a flight of steps to our door and further up to the roof. We take a cup of tea up there occasionally where we can enjoy the warm evenings and watch the hustle and bustle of the beach road. At the top of the stairs we've left a chair. So when Fred ran in, I knew where he would be. He was upstairs making himself at home on the chair! Isn't that what every cat aspires to? I used to think if we didn't have cats as pets, they would revert to their natural ways. Now I think sleeping on comfy chairs and being fed at regular intervals IS their natural state!

Fibre art?

Thanks for the interesting responses to yesterday's post. OK so I found them fun but as I thought a bit more about why I like these I came up with a couple of more important reasons. As Terri mentions on her blog some of these postcards look like samples cut from larger works (and other things too but much more eloquently than me!) and I think for me this is the problem with them. They get churned out on a conveyor belt without much regard for design and composition. Composition. That IMHO is the key. As I said the size restriction forces me to come up with a design that looks good in a 6 x 4 inch rectangle. A square would result in something completely different.

The small drawings I do for Everyday Matters continually challenge me. The blog page is the 'restriction'. The white background, the small size, the angle of the object, the lighting - all these things are thought about. So in a way, the postcards are like small sketches focusing the mind. I like to work small so I don't see that there is a necessity to take these to the next level which is to work larger. I don't feel comfortable with a large format so there is no next level. A 12 x 12 and a 62 x 100 are going to pose their own design challenges.

I'm a stay at home Mum (I prefer housewife and superstar!) so I'm kind of amazed that on these on-line quilt groups with many professional quilt artists there is so little talk about design (and the why) but a lot about materials and techniques (the how). When I visited the Festival of Quilts last year I was frankly shocked at how poor some of the quilts were. It was my first visit to a big quilt show and perhaps my expectations were too high. The variety of techniques on display was dazzling but the knowledge of colour and composition was lacking in so many of them. ( I think construction is less important unless you're making traditional bed quilts)

I think it is important to have techniques at your disposal to make your ideas flow. But the chasing of techniques seem to be becoming the be all and end all of quilt 'art'. (Not for all of course.) Manufacturers will continually supply us with shiny new things to play with and if that is true, how can there be an end to the chase? Do all these techniques result in a piece of art? Art? What's that? Just kidding, I'm not going to go there!!

Fabric postcards

Small works, fibreart cards, fabric postcards? I never know what to call these. Someone on the Artful Quilters ring has started a discussion about whether these are worth doing or not. I don't feel strongly one way or another as they were fun to do and I found the exercise of coming up with a design within the 6 x 4 inch format was very interesting. The designs got simplified as I went along (the latest are at the top) and the speed with which I could do them encouraged me as I am normally very slow to produce any finished work. Better to do these than nothing at all I think!

I read a lot of blogs and I'm on a few quilt chat groups including the QuiltArt list. As I'm reading about one controversial topic after another, I'm coming to the opinion that all this to-ing and fro-ing is not actually solving much! The debate about what makes an artist is one that has interested me for as long as I can remember. I joined in some of the debates but after the last one I've come to the conclusion that it really doesn't matter. Everyone is different and there are too few words and even fewer labels that fit us so why bother arguing? (Well, that's how I feel this week anyway!) Does size matter when we make these cards? Don't ask me, I don't know! I just know they were fun!

EDM # 43 Draw something ceramic

HB, B and 3B pencils. I started something simpler but then I decided to give this a go. It's a little Christmas bell that Paul made at school in November 1997 so he would have been 6. Naturally, he asked why on earth I wanted to draw it and Mark said it's the sort of thing only a mother would love! It goes without saying that it is a little treasure so I wanted to record it by drawing it. I have actually simplified it a little as there are more blobs of paint on it than shown but it would have made the shading confusing.

I used a 3B pencil for the outline and shade and my goodness these soft pencils feel so nice!

Cue wait

This is Kuwait from 20 miles up. We live under the name that is farthest right under the pointy bit on the right. The pointy bit at the top is the city area. It takes about 15/20 minutes belting up the motorway to get there. And the point of this post is that we have now made the decision to leave. I will continue drawing, maybe quilting but there may be bigger gaps in between!

More water dispensers

I'm beginning to wonder just how many different designs there are! When I saw the Liberation Tower I knew there had to be a mini Kuwait Tower somewhere!



I'm not entirely certain what this is but I found it in a supermarket car park opposite a mosque. Perhaps it is a mini mosque?




This one is obvious, plenty of these around Kuwait.



This one is outside someone's house. I think it's quite pretty with those flowers. Unlike Dubai there aren't so many decorative gardens here. In fact, many of the huge houses have very little space between them (sometimes only a matter of a few feet) so gardens don't seem to be considered important. Likewise, I've rarely seen people sitting on their balconies although every house has them.



This was within the boundaries of a house so I asked permission to take this (I'm not quite sure but the owner looked as if he was having his shoes polished in the garden!)



I had a double take when I first saw this one. It's just down the road from us and I pass it every day but it's partially hidden behind the tree. It's a well, with the bucket just visible through the branches.



And a shiny new jug. Again a common one but not normally in such good condition!

Nita asked me to write more about who uses these and how are they filled. Actually, I'm not too sure, I can only tell you what I see! I've never seen a Kuwaiti use one, they are usually used by the many construction workers, road workers, street sweepers etc. Basically, like Dubai, Kuwait relies on cheap labour from counties like India and Bangladesh and these men will spend many hours outdoors working in the sweltering heat. They are usually dropped off in lorries and buses early in the morning and collected again during the day or evening. In Dubai we would see them sleeping off their lunch on the little patch of grass outside our complex. They would carry small metal containers of food and gather together for lunch. Occasionally they would knock on the door if they ran out of water. (I can't remember seeing any water dispensers there, but I can't say I looked either).

Mark tells me he has seen the water tanks being replaced. Maybe that is why some of them are locked up, to prevent the bottles being taken?

Nita is the lovely lady who encouraged me to blog and I'm sure I wouldn't have given these dispensers a thought if I hadn't been looking for photos to take. We've lived in Kuwait for nearly five years and I'm so glad I've started blogging before we leave (whenever that may be) as it has really opened my eyes! Last week I took a detour to a place I know has a street of very old buildings - an example of how Kuwaitis used to live - but found it had recently been bulldozed. Kuwait is rapidly changing but I hadn't realized just how fast until then.

Does this logo...

remind you of another? Mark says no, I say yes! It's a bakery, btw.

Water dispensers, old and new