Morocco
Morocco
In Jemaa el Fna in Marrakech at Midday, brilliant light flooded the square. People sheltered from the fierce sun under large umbrellas, which created pools of deep shadows and figures were in silhouette. In the evening, as the sun went down, the area became a huge barbecue as dozens of stall-holders cooked their street food, to feed the hundreds who gathered round.
When I was travelling through the High Atlas Mountains, what deeply impressed me was the great combinations of earth colours across the landscape. As I began to work on the paintings, I was using range of colours such as raw and burnt sienna, magenta, umbers, mauves and Indian red, which I had never explored before. I was intrigued by the incredibly irregular shapes of the mountains and the patterns created by the strata. I tried to capture the contrast in evening light between the very dark hills and the sunlit peaks, catching the distant sun.