Blocks of Apartment
Brown drawing pastels on paper, 21 x 30 cm
I was wondering around the town (Aktau, Kazakhstan) with my camera and to be honest I have no idea what the name of this street is since I arrived to Kazakhstan only recently. These blocks of apartments attracted my attention due to their round around the stair case architecture. I made my sketch at home from the photograph as I wanted to depict the sense of space I experienced while I was standing in there. These blocks were almost on they own and it felt as if they owned the place other than the other way round.
Round Stones
Brown drawing pastels on paper, 21 x 30 cm
This sketch was also taken from a photograph I took during my Walk around Aktau (Kazakhstan). The round stones are actually natural and not human made/adjusted decorative objects. This type of stone is apparently a regional natural phenomena and they can be seen in specific places in the local steppe which is approximately an hour drive from the town. Some were delivered into the town to decorate the public places as local people find them quite peculiar too.
Urta
Brown drawing pastels on paper, 21 x 30 cm
We were giving a tour around local steppe and it was phenomenal. The local nature is so beautiful and I tried to take as many pictures as I could so I could use them late for my sketches. At some point for reached a place where locals come for barbeque and natural warm water pools for bathing. The place was full of small urtas which are used for changing/resting rooms and for serving teas as well as food if you wish (which is cooked in a small café/restaurant on the actual site). We had no tea and neither we had a chance to enjoyed the bath due to time limitation but we were overwhelmed with such possibility in the middle of pretty empty steppe. One day I will depict this image in oils but at the moment I need to learn to draw!
See Rocks
Brown drawing pastels on paper, 21 x 30 cm
I tried to depict the Caspian see rocks from the photo I took while wondering around the place (Aktau, Kazakhstan). It was a very sunny day (yes, there are some days where there is no sun in Kazakhstan but it’s not as often as in the UK for sure!) The water was so clear that I could see the rocks with such clarity and I started to follow their patterns with my camera.
‘Mr Bin’
Brown drawing pastels on paper, 21 x 30 cm
This may be perceived a bit weird but I just like bins. I like their simplicity and diversity from country to country. This one looks like a basic robot from 60es with legs and arms in one attachment. It looked so lonely and rather cute. I could not resist from making a drawing of it.
Redundant Christmas tree
Brown drawing pastels on paper, 21 x 30 cm
I mentioned earlier that I have a weird attraction for bins but not to their content tough, just their external look and it has to be a bin outside in a public place, i.e. not a domestic one! Therefore this drawing has nothing to do with the actual bin because this bin is inside the place! I bought a Christmas tree and cut its branches straight away in order to decorate our apartment and then I put its trunk by the bin in our kitchen for throwing it away later on that day. When I walked into the kitchen again I found this scenery rather poetic in its rejection, loneliness and sadness, so I started to draw a life sketch straight away. The irony of this sketch is that it could be perceived as if it was made after the festive period but it was the other way round. What we see is not always what we think we see…or by looking at some messed up perspective of my bin what we see is not always what we draw!