Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Images of Turkey!


We're back from our trip in Turkey and Spain. It was an incredible trip and Turkey was beautiful and brimming with history. Spain was nice too.


These are probably the best two pictures I drew. I didn't paint as much as I would have liked. We rushed about seeing all sorts of incredible things.

The first one is the Hagia Sophia. I've always wanted to go there. My Dad asked me why...and how I even knew about it when I was younger. I think I first heard of the Hagia Sophia from playing Sim City 3000. I think there was a cheat code so you could build famous monuments in your city.

Anyway, it was awe inspiring. They are doing restoration work inside and you can see both the Islamic decoration and the original Byzantine mosaics of Christ etc. It also has green marble columns taken from the famous Temple of Artemis in Ephesus. It used to be one of the Seven Wonders of the World, but now the temple has one lonely column left, standing in a field, with a huge stork nest perched on top.

This picture is the Blue Mosque. It's exquisite and magnificent, especially when you see it from the Bosphorus. I painted this while sitting in the top floor breakfast room of our hotel. It's called the Blue Mosque because of the Iznik quartz tiles that decorate the interior.

7 comments:

Geetha said...

Man, I thought this post would be about Thanksgiving. But this is pretty good too :)

Cynthea said...

Haha...um...I've got pictures of last year's turkey if you prefer.

Alisa said...

Amazing watercolors Cynthea! I also got your postcard today, thanks!

Amy Kim Kibuishi said...

Absolutely gorgeous! I got your postcard in the mail! And I had dreams of being in Turkey running around those temples last night. Thanks for the beautiful visions! :D

Amber Alvarez said...

These are so, so pretty. It's always been my dream to go to Turkey. Hopefully I'll get there some day. Your sketches are mega impressive.

Linda said...

We will share our turkey with you on Thanksgiving. Please come. we may not have blue tiles but we have great stuffing and other things.

Cynthea said...

YUM.....TURKEY....
of course I'll be there for Thanksgiving!