Sharjah, UAE

I had heard a lot of good things about Sharjah, but it was not untill the Sharjah Art Bienale started that I decided to paid a visit to the city. Not many people know that Sharjah is the Emirate with the most museums. The culture was always in the interest of the rulers from Sharjah.

I was delighted by the collection of arabistic painters in the art museum. It is a great collection, with beautiful watercolors showing scenes from the past in the middle east. I spent a long time watching carefully these watercolors. They woke in me the desire to go to all those places, to see how are they like today and to paint them again.

Before entering the museum I got distracted by this scene of the boys playing cricket. The indian and pakistani population is very high in the UAE and along with their culture they have also contribute with their love for the cricket. You find people playing cricket in the parks everywhere in the UAE.

The old buildings in the background host the art works for Art Sharjah Bienale exhibition. (You can see that I included the red and blue banners that announces the Bienale) All the elements together: Old buildings, heritage, new modern culture and popular culture are what I always look to portrait in my drawings.

PS: The drawing was done in March before leaving the UAE. I still have many unposted sketches and it is a pity to leave them on the sketchbooks. Some times I open my sketchbooks and feel a little nostalgic watching them.

Dancers

I try to do sketches that tell stories, with a minimal use of line. Dancers are wonderful subjects for sketching. They have a way to move that shows beauty, even when they are relaxing. The dancer's uses his body as a canvas, drawing in every movement.

Sketching in Hannover

Well, Here is me in a bar in Hannover, writing some text about a drawing. I try to write more in my sketch books, cause at the end they are journals, but I'm so lazy and I don't do very often.

As you see I still have my beard. Keeping it have become a difficult task since I have to find a barber in every new place. Of course I could do it myself , but i have to buy a maschine to trim the hair and I have already an overweight luggage. On the other hand I love barbershops, they are great places to sketch; and the seek and find game becomes very interesting. In the UAE a barber was very cheap and a great relaxing experience...in Germany it cost more money and I wanted to find a middle east barber, so I start asking people where can I find a turk barber and finally I landed in the red light district of Hannover. The area is interesting for sketching, quite deserted during the day, except for the barber shop that was full with rough guys. I got my doubts about going in but the owner saw me watching through the window and came out and said there is a place free.

The cut was ok, but not even close to the ones in the UAE. It was done as in a chain...next please.. without much interaction with the barber.. when he finished he told me to wash my face....I did it....but he couldn't close the water from the lavatory... he keep trying till it broke the piece and suddenly we had a fountain in the barbershop... with everybody trying to close it without success....I paid quickly and left.

Sketching in Hanover Staatstheater

I am spending a few days in Hanover and sketching the ballet company form the Staatstheater. There is great beauty in the dance and I'm confronted with the limits of sketching being unable to catch the movement. I get frozen moments, fragments of bigger picture. However funny is you see all the sketches together you start feeling what is going on there. I'm experimenting a lot, trying to understand the best way (or ways) to portrait a ballet. Degas of course is a great reference. Here a few of the sketches I did yesterday.

airmalta cat-muc

airmalta cat-muc, originally uploaded by omar.paint.

flying to Munich

Good Bye UAE

This my last post written in the UAE. I still have some stories to tell and some drawings from the UAE to post but I will do it from other countries. I'm going home or I'm leaving home? It seems that I carry my home in my sketchbook.

I have been 10 months in the UAE and I have learnt a lot about this wonderful place. It was not the first time that I moved to another country. From Ecuador to Germany, from Germany to Italy, from Italy to the UAE. And every time everything that is important in my life have to find space in one bag. And since space is precious I prefer in many cases to keep the most important things just in my head and in my heart. So I try to learn everything I can from the places I visit. Sketching is my way to discover things, to transform what it is at the beginning strange and different into something wonderful and special. You see, when you draw something it requires you to contemplate and examine it for a long time. When you finish the drawing you own it in your memory and you will never forget it. And little by little you start calling that place home.

I got a great experience in the UAE. In no other place my work has atracted so much attention. People gathered arround me respectfully when I was drawing. I could see in their faces that they were happy. I appeared 2 times in The National Newspaper, and one in the Gulf News. Sketching also had allowed me to meet wonderful people and make new friends. People I am going to miss. It is sad to leave when you know that there are still many places to draw in this country. My dream will be to come back some day and do a journey through the 7 Emirates and portrait them all.

So where I'm going now? I'm going to a place I have never go before. I'm going to visit my mother in Canada for 3 months. She moved there 2 years ago. I'm going to sketch new places and make beautiful books. So I guess I am going home.

PS: if you want to support my work and my travels, you can buy prints of my drawings in http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/omar-jaramillo.html

Emirati beard

I have never had beard. But in my last month here I decided to grow one, after an emirati friend told me that going to the barber was something I had to experience in the UAE. If dificult to explain how the cut is but here is a picture of me, look at the corners under to my ears. Of course it is still growing.. .. any advice from any beardkeeper, how to keep it nice? this is definitly "unknown territory" for me.

Probably more than the beard I like going to the barber. I feel compleatly spoiled and there is a great place to do sketches.