Gary Kirkpatrick

Artist and travel blogger.

From Rome, With Love

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It was an early morning dash to the airport and then some tense minutes while I tried to find Peggy at the airport.  But smooth flying and a view of il Coloseo as we came in.  There’s a bus from Ciampino to Termini train station that’s quite easy, then an expensive cab ride to our hotel,; it happened to be near the house we are renting for the next several months.  It was lunchtime.

Our clerk sent us to a restaurant which was diretto, diretto down the street.  Not.  But some locals helped us find what we were looking for and we settled on a very local – there are no tourists in this section- and very good restaurant.  We ordered a pasta dish which we shared, and a mixed deep fried mixed plate with zucchini including the flower, stuffed olives, a rice ball and a few other goodies.  We got a very good local 1/2 bottle of red for 5 euros.  It took forever but it was good.

After a bit of a rest we met our future landlords-  we start in early September.  They have a house they renovated, their friends having bought and done the other half of an old shop.  The lady of the house is an architect.  She did a fine design it seemed to us.  I’ll describe the place soon but there’s a huge outdoor terrace.  They dine there 8 months of the year.

More soon.

 

 

Water color painting of the Church at Auber-sur-Oise (updated)

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July 26, 2014

Last Tuesday a friend and I went to Auvers-sur-Oise, not to far from Paris.  It is here that Vincent Van Gogh lived his last months.  He died from a gunshot wound, either from his own hand, as we have long thought, but perhaps one of the local teens who’d been harassing him for his odd appearance.

Gogh did a painting of this church,  now a famous piece.   Here is my rendition in memory of this man who contributed so much to art and who received so little in return.  I’d done a pen and ink/water color one a few years ago from a different angle and in preparation I did a sketch beforehand, both below.  I needed to be more or less ready to paint when I get there as I doubt I can sit long enough to start from scratch.   My butt just about died that day sitting on the ground perched against a tree doing the pen and ink. The angle he did it from is the one I sketched a few days before we went. There is nothing to lean against from his angle so my friend  brought chairs. And a bottle of Absinthe.

 

 

Church at Avers sur Oise: Ode to Vincent

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Church at Avers sur Oise - sketch

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My contribution to the exhibit at the Hotel d’ Ville’s exhibit in Paris

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My contribution to the exhibit at the Hotel d’ Ville’s exhibit in Paris, an delightful exhibit about which I posted last week. It is a protest against the astronomical prices in the restaurants. Try $6-7 for coffee, $15 for a hot dog. it’s become impossible for the average worker to afford to take the family out even once in a while unless they have a employer provided ‘ticket reataurant.’ 

Croak is a play on words- croque monsieur is a famous sandwich. If I can find someone to translate this for me I might do it up, just a 10 minute sketch now but I think it is kind of fun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Videoslideshow- Chobe River and Park, Botswana, Our Safari

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This is a slide show from our safari in Chobe National Park, Botswana, not far from Livingstone, Zambia.  Half of the time is on the river and the rest on land.  Some close ups of quite a few critters.    .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z85NCjOCA4U&list=UUl7YKIwsWVvA_jQrQVcxYRg

Tanzania to Solwezi, Zambia- a slideshow set to Zambian music

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These are photos from the moment we landed in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, across 1500 km of Tanzania to Solwezi, Zambia, where we met up with Travis, who is serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in a small village not far from Solwezi.  Coming up,  our days in his village.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKXpMILbwFU&list=UUl7YKIwsWVvA_jQrQVcxYRg

Some watercolors from Zambia

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Here are some of the drawings I have done here in Tanzania and Zambia.  We started in Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania.

Tazara Train
Tazara Train (from the journal I kept)

 

The countryside in Tanzania:

Huts in Tanzania (from the journal I kept)
Huts in Tanzania (from the journal I kept)

 

The plains of Tanzania  (from the journal I kept)
The plains of Tanzania 
(from the journal I kept)  Sold

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Update from Lusaka

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June 14th

Hello from Lusaka, the capitol of Zambia. 3 fantastic days in our nephew’s village (he is in Peace Corps), what lovely people and what a totally fabulous welcome we received! Rustic conditions, to put it mildly, even the bus rides were arduous and there was a 1 1/2 hour walk in the dark but under a full moon to end the 12 hour day. More to come when I have time on the net.

If you have a Facebook account you can read my hand written journals with illustrations.  I have not uploaded to google+ yet.  I can not post them here without more work than I can probably manage to do right now.

From Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania

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Seven hours from Madrid and you are smack dab in the middle of the Islamic world.  It hardly looks it from an air traveler’s point of vierw.  Dubai is flooded with oil money and the large modern steel and glass buildings strut out from the coastal landscape as you descend.  The world’s tallest building seems to zig zag its way into the clouds.

Three hours and a $15 quiche for one lunch later we were on our way.  It’s about 5 hours to Dar Es Salaam.  Fortunately we slept a bit along the way.  In my case, I struggled with much pain in the coccyx.  It seems I need a special pillow as not even the ibuprofen worked.

Once at the airport it took an hour to get the visa and $100 each.  Quite expensive for a three day visit.  Fortunately our ride was still waiting as we emerged and we got into a small van, only slightly beat up.  It took another hour to get to the hotel we’d booked.

Along the way people offered a wide variety of goods for sale to the drivers stuck in the traffic.  Women wearing brightly colored dresses carried a root vegetable on their heads, their skull cushioned by a round cloth.  Men carried sporing goods, traffic warning triangles for when you break down, bright plastic watches, and large bags of cashews.  Local buses lumbered in and out of the lanes.  These buses have been around a while.  It’s hot, about 92f/32c and the bus windows are all open.

Our downtown hotel sits on an unpaved street.  We are warmly welcomed, ushered everywhere from the front door to our hotel room.  A gorgeous huge bed is also very welcoming, as is the fully tiled bathroom.  You have to wait for the hot water tank to warm up, but once that is done, it’s a great shower with room for a pony.

Our traveling companions are in the hotel next door.  They have made the trip from Texas, arriving the day before.  We had a very spicy curry, a decent pizza, some tomato soup.  Nary a fried grasshopper in sight.