Crazily, considering my problems drawing at the moment, having seen a couple of EDiM posts from this year's challenge, I decided to join in yesterday (3rd). I last participated in 2010, when I was in Sudan. You can see the posts by clicking this link: EDiM 2010

This year I have decided not to post all the drawings on my blog, but have an album on facebook here: EDiM 2013 Facebook album. It's on my facebook page, so maybe you could "like" the page whilst you check out the drawings. Judging by these first two days, it looks like my interpretation of the daily prompts will have a Degas twist.

For more details on EDiM. check out the flickr and facebook groups below for fellow EDiMers.  FB: www.facebook.com/groups/296443287101735/ and Flickr : www.flickr.com/groups/edmeverydayinmay2011/

On 1st April, I picked her up off the street where she'd been hanging around work. She has a sweet nature and I had fussed her and her brother (who had a broken leg) over the previous week. However, on the morning of the 1st, I arrived at work and the security guard told me the brother had been shot but Degas escaped. (There is a big stray problem on the industrial estate and without a dog home system in Oman the police shoot them.) After making some enquiries, I put her in a box and took her home (via the vets) the same day.

I have grown up with dogs, and one of things I did not like about my lifestyle was the fact I couldn't have a dog. I think, that having made the decision that I am moving to Barcelona by next Easter, it was easy to adopt her.


Naturally, having a puppy in the house has meant some big changes.  She is the reason I am struggling to do artwork. It's hard working when you have a puppy. Either she needs 100% of my attention, or when she's asleep I'm too tired to draw. Of course I have managed a few sketches, but not many.

In the month I've had her, she's had all her vaccines, been spade, and got a chip.  Most importantly, she has put on 4kgs and is growing fast.

This is her PLEASE play NOW face!
How can I resist?

I apologise for the infrequent blogging, for not visiting your blogs, and for generally disappearing. Normalish service will resume in a few months, when Degas is a little older, I hope.

Please remember I love receiving your comments.

On Thursday 11th April, I held my annual sketching event for charity. As with previous years, the date was chosen to coincide with the April Worldwide SketchCrawl (see www.sketchcrawl.com for more info).

About 15 of us turned up including a couple of families who had super-enthusiastic children.

Several young Omanis joined in, never having sketched like this before. Along with Aziz and myself they were then interviewed for the local press (but it's not been published so far).

I am still collecting money from people who sponsored me, but it looks like I have raised 205 Omani rials ($535), which I shall give to the charity next week.

*****
My next post will explain the delay in posting, unless you follow me on facebook (www.facebook.com/SuePownallArtist), then you will already know.

Two weekends ago I went to Dubai as I'd received a invite to the opening day of Art Dubai. Having never attended this event I thought it would be an interesting opportunity, especially as the Global Art Forum is run in conjunction with it. Naturally I took my sketchbook and camera, and these are the pictures from the 3 days I was there.

After checking into my hotel, I had some lunch which was served with a beautiful acid green lemonmint drink, which cried out to be painted. I grabbed a pencil from my bag and then used watercolours to try to capture the colours, whilst eating a scrummy sandwich and chips. It looks better in the original, my scanner's washed it out a bit.

The next day we had a dust storm in the morning and afterwards was a lovely refreshing wind. Although it was a bit overcast, I went to the beach near the Art Dubai site and after sitting watching the waves for awhile I tried to paint them. (My scanner couldn't cope with this, so it was lucky I took a photo). From the beach I went to the Global Art Forum where there were really interesting discussions and talks.

I returned to the forum on Friday, after I checked out and left my bag for the afternoon, I was a little early so investigated Souq Madinate Jumeriah. Sitting in Costas for their free wifi, I painted the stunning view of the iconic Burj Al Arab (top). Finishing off the weekend, I sketched a couple of pages at the forum before heading to collect my bag on route to the airport.

I love receiving comments on posts, maybe you'll be kind enough to leave one? Thank you
Sue

My annual sketching event for charity is coming up on the 11th April. I'm trying to beat the totals from the last two years and encouraging people to attend and/or donate as much as possible.

This year, I am again raising money for an Omani charity. Awladna promotes children's safety whether on the roads or in the home. 

More details are on the facebook event page: Sketch Muscat for charity

I have a friend who lives in a beautiful fishing village just east of Muscat; I sketched there on 12.12.12 at 12.12. I stayed with her last night, going to sleep to the sound of waves lapping on the shore and listening to them again when we had our leisurely breakfast in her garden. After such a lovely start, I headed to the beach with my sketchbooks and camera.

Qantab is unique as it is the only village in Oman, so I was told, that still uses old traditional wooden winches to drag the fishing boats ashore to their berths on the sand. I tried to verify the fact, but google comes up with so many results that after an hour I gave up. Despite the slow, chatty breakfast I was still there early enough for some fishermen to be bringing their boats back after the night/dawn fish. Checking quickly that photos were ok, I snapped some shots of the men winching a boat ashore, then grabbed my regular sketchbook (A5) and a pencil, the first drawing instrument which came to hand. There was too much movement, they winch quickly, so I swopped to my A4 sketchbook and captured what I could.

After two boats were brought ashore side-by-side, using adjacent winches, activity ceased at the top of the beach and the elderly fisherman sat on some nets in the shade to rest. He has a lovely face and only 2 or 3 teeth and was happy to sit drinking his water whilst I drew him. I showed him the drawings afterwards and was met with a toothless smile. I then paddled along the beach and back noting 100s of things I wanted to draw... mmm maybe a future project sketching and drawing the village... and sat down on a boat rest to draw the winch (top). I love how old fishing nets have been recycled as rope to lash some pieces together. The sketch took an hour, a really long time for me, and I stopped as I couldn't decide whether to add colour nor could I sit in the sun any longer. It maybe the end of winter but it was around 26c.

I foresee more mornings being spent drawing in this village. What do you think? Please leave a comment, if you have time.

I'm really enjoying being an illustrator for the short story site, The Story Shack. Not only do I get different subject matter to illustrate, but I get the opportunity to use different styles. Above is this month's illustration, The Aloo Tree, whilst below is February's, How to Fail at Telemarketing.

Finally, here is January's illustration. It's drawn in ink and coffee.

You can see more of myStory Shack illustrations here on this site under the illustration tab.

Also, you can read the stories How to fail at Telemarketing  and Coffee by clicking the titles, whilst you'll have to wait to read The Aloo Tree until it's published on the 18th.

Thank you for visiting my blog and I always appreciate the comments left.
Sue

This year as part of the Muscat Festival (you can see my 2012 festival sketches here, here, here, here, all posts in between until...  here), there was a Art Festival consisting of exhibitions and seminars/talks. I was able to attend four of the seminars, and took my A5 sketchbook to them all.

They were all very inspiring, I especially liked the talks given by architects with projects in the Sultanate. On another evening, artist Dominique Malarde was very interesting and I am a little annoyed that I missed her workshop due to water issues in my flat.

The talks were held in the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque meeting hall, which is why all women, including myself, wore scarves. A bonus for going to the talks in the mosque was I got to see the mosque up close at night, something a non-Muslim normally gets to do.

Spring 2012, I read about a Mad Hatter's Tea Party arranged by illustrator Lynn Chapman (Lynn's blog is here). I was so inspired by the drawings the group produced I decided to arrange my own tea party, which I held last weekend.

Planning started this January, whilst I was home in UK, and saw me making a dormouse, which inspired us all at the tea, as our drawings below show.

In a UK charity shop, I bought a silver tiered cake stand, which conveniently screwed apart so I could pack it easily. At the tea, I added tarts (custard not jam) and cakes I iced with "eat me". Some macaroons from the Chedi hotel were added later. I attempted to captured them all in the sketch at the top of this post. The other thing I did in the UK was to get material for my Hatter's hat and planned how to make it, with a great suggestion from mum.

In Muscat, I made my hat, paper roses - painting some white ones red, but the scones were bought at a local deli.

My flat is small so it was a small but select group of us who participated. Unfortunately one lady got lost and never arrived.

I for one had great fun and think the others did too.

On 21st November I made the first guide pencil marks on this drawing and it has been lurking ever since. 

From starting it, I've ...

  finished Festival Face #6, you can see her here,
drawn and donated a drawing for a charity exhibition,
had a commission to do,
arranged & attended 2 sketching events,
had a stall for my art at a winter fair,
produced 2 illustrations for The Story Shack,
and spent 3 weeks on holiday in UK.

I guess that's enough reasons for it to have taken so long.