Original Watercolours by Tim Wilmot

Vegetable seller, Alexandria Egypt

Watercolour 15" x 11" on Bockingford NOT Paper 300 gms

An anonymous vegetable trader down an anonymous street in Alexandria.   Apart from the focal point of the stall, I wanted to also capture the essence of the beautiful ochre-coloured building behind with it's turquoise shutters and the confusing myriad of cables running above your head (I would hate to be a telephone engineer there).  This painting allowed me to try out my new Nicholas Simmons Escoda size 20 brush - a synthetic brush with great holding capacity and a very sharp point.  The brush easily dwarfs all my other brushes.  Apart from the figures, I did the whole painting with this one brush.

 

Alexandria Street 1, Egypt

Watercolour 15" x 11" on Bockingford NOT Paper 300 gms

An anonymous backstreet in Alexandria, Egypt, and a typical scene, and work in progress with locals making do with what they have - Badly fitting Tarpaulin for shading market stalls, parasols past their use by date providing some protection form the strong midday sun, scaffolding cladding unfinished walls and people going about their business.

 

Fish Market Uskudar, Istanbul

Watercolour 15" x 11" on Bockingford paper 300g

Just as you get off the ferry at Uskudar on the asian side of Istanbul is a wonderful fish market (Balikcilar Carsisi in Turkish) located in a dark tunnel going through the middle of a large building.  You could almost miss it as you walk by, but your eyes are caught by some brightly lit stalls showing the fresh catch of the day.  The main challenge with this painting was the curved ribs of the roof support and the decision to either not bother with the detail or concentrate on the perspective. I think I sat on the fence on that one.

 

Sahaflar Market Street, #Istanbul, #Turkiye

Original Watercolour 15" x 11"

The famous Sahaflar Carsisi, in Bayzil Square, is directly opposite the covered bazaar’s Spoon Makers’ Gate. This historic area has about 50 small shops. This site was the Chartoprateia of Byzantium, the Book and Paper market during the Byzantine period. After the conquest of Istanbul in 1453, fez makers and metal engravers used the area. Booksellers were in the covered bazaar, now housing bedspread makers and vendors. Sahaflar’s fame reached beyond the Ottoman Empire to Europe, where writers and historians such as Antoine Galland, Hammer, Busbecq and Charles White gave special attention to this antique book center.

 

Istanbul Markets

Original Watercolour 15" x 11"

All around the sides of the well known Grand Bazaar or 'Kapili Carsi' in Turkish, are many other market areas frequented more by the locals rather than tourists.  Here, vendors supplying the same line of goods gather together in sometimes extremely narrow streets, so narrow, that the only means of transporting the stock around is either by over-sized sack trucks or literally on your shoulders.  You've got to be fit to be a market trader there - even as a visitor you could easily walk miles around the markets and still not see everything.