Ubud

Temple Ubud Water colour, coloured pencils and ink journal

I spent the day yesterday travelling to Ubud to have a look at the local art and craft.  Had a lovely day just not what I expected.  Ubud is a village in the hinterland of Bali and in the hills, but before your mind goes to quaint little village nestled in the rice paddies and jungles, that is what it was, not what it is today.  We didn’t get out of the urban sprawl, there was only an occasional rice paddy in amongst the shops, temples, shops, houses and more shops.

Ubud journal page

There was certainly a great deal of craft, each village (suburb) has it own craft specialty and we passed kilometres of stone carving  shops, I don’t know how you would choose which one to go in.

Me at the coffee tasting

 

I hired a driver for the day, such a lovely gentle man, he choose were to go and I did not quibble as the thought of sorting out which one would be best was beyond me.  So I visited Batik, silver jewellery, fine art and temples.  The art gallery was much better than what I feared and amongst many touristy paintings was some really nice and interesting work.  I bought this little painting as I like this naive style.  All the patterns and details were so well done. ( I lost the piece of paper with the nae of the artist on it will have to email the store for it)

Balinese Painting

I didn’t have time to get to the rice terraces, but had lunch amongst rice paddies instead.

Made it to my new villa where we will have the art retreat, it is a little piece of Balinese heaven, show you that next post.

Karen

Seminyak Beach Sunrise (well almost)

Seminyak Beach Sunrise Water Colour

Almost got up early enough to get the sunrise on the beach.  Still just a hint of pink in the clouds and the lovely early morning colours.  (Before you all think I am a really early bird, Bali is two hours later then home, so I am awake very early.)

I tried to use all water colour in this picture, with only a few ink lines to sketch the figures.  The sea is so hard to paint, all those waves that just won’t sit still for me to draw, and people are always a challenge.  I didn’t really succeed with the water colour and when I got home it felt very insipid so I got out the colour pencils and gently added some depth to the colours.  I only have a limited water colour set and just couldn’t get the colours I wanted, and working with such a new technique on site defeated me this time.

I did this drawing at the beach, there were loads of people walking, many with their dogs.  It made me miss mine, I will never get used to going for a walk without a dog, it just seems wrong somehow.  These dogs were having a fabulous time chasing waves and each other.

Seminyak Beach Sunrise Left

This view was taken looking straight ahead, I also took photos looking either way up the beach and when I got home I used the one looking left for another painting.  I used ink for the trees, but it tried again with the water colours in a more controlled environment and I am much happier with the result, especially the sky.  Nothing beats water colours for painting beautiful skies.  A bit more practice and I will get consistent results.

Seminyak Beach Sunrise Journal Page

Here is the journal spread, starting to get the writing to work with the drawings.

Seminyak Beach Sunrise Right

I am off to Ubud for the day tomorrow, looking forward to seeing the inland scenery and the rice fields and of course all the arts there.  Ubud is the artistic centre of Bali and has many fine wood, silver, fiber artisans and fine arts. Hope I can find some nice things to take home.

Karen