#palestine_in_colour #free_palestine
Following the very enjoyable experience of producing a drawig every day during October, for Inktober, I decided to start a new project based on typical Palestine things. The idea is to produce a smallish gouache painting for each thing I can think of. I don’t want to make more than 30 images and I also don’t want the pressure of doing one each day, so I aim to finish up by the end of the year.
Of course I can’t go to Palestine. For some images, I shall take a reference photo of something I can organise (such as the oranges or the key). Other references are online (like the flag). The images should be mostly hopeful and nostalgic but they will sometimes be tough to look at.
If I use a reference which is clearly from someone else’s Instagram feed or something, I will credit them.
You can find all these paintings on my Instagram feed.
As an artist, I am all about Place, Life and Colour. So this collection will be called Palestine in Colour.
The paintings one by one
Desert Hedgehog
This is a desert hedgehog. Paraechinus aetheopicus. Or حصانة صحراوية in possibly academic Arabic. Orقنفذ as my Arabic teacher (@kurdirania ) suggests.
This hedgehog does occur in Palestine and Jordan, as well as other places
It is half the size of the British hedgehog but you have to admit, she/he is totes chic.
They like the heat and the desert. I don't know if even the desert is warm in Palestine just now.
I am hoping that at least one hedgehog is curled up in the compost heap in my garden, sleeping the winter away.
I love small mammals, who doesn't?
Thinking of Palestine, all the time and I wish it were better. I wish you were watching the local nature person explaining footage of this little treasure on the TV.
#palestine_in_colour
#freepalestine
A Space for Women
Women need cafés as much as men do perhaps more. In the last ten years or so, various women only cafés sprang up on the West Bank and in Gaza. I don't think any of the Gaza ones are left now.
This "café", when written about in September, had no coffee or cake. But it did provide a semi private space, in between the tents, for women to meet up without the demands of children, without men. In this space they might read, study or chat.
I took the reference from the article. I don't want to give the name. There are enough targets already. Just know that all Palestinian women are awesome.
#palestine_in_colour
#freepalestine
Harbour cats
I have seen many cats in the fishing harbour of Essaouira. They are big, tougher than the city cats, whose territory is close. They get fed by fishermen and fishmongers and sleep all day on piles of nets.
I think that Gaza fishing harbour was once similar. This would be less likely to happen in Devon, for example, where seagulls are huge and vicious.
Do let me know if I am right. I'd love to visit them and those who know them. I'd love for Palestine to rebuild itself and for people to be happy.
#palestine_in_colour
#freepalestine
Cardoon
Cardoon (خرشوف)
Cardoons are related to artichokes. I took the reference from my own garden, where this monster of a plant lives happily and magnificently.
Cardoons are popular in Palestine as well as in Morocco, where I bought my seeds. It has gorgeous purple flowers and is quite spikey. The young stems are sold bundled up at markets. They are often prepared in meat recipes.
I wish Palestinians all the fresh fruit and vegetables they crave.
#palestine_in_colour
#freepalestine
Gaza's first woman taxi driver
Yes, so I owe you another episode of #palestine_in_colour . I wanted to show everyday things, not necessarily romantic things, like pretty coffee jugs. So I looked up taxi drivers.
On 19th November, 2020, an impressive woman called Nayla Abu Jubbah set up a women only taxi company. I think at the time it was just her. The article came with an image of her at the wheel. I screenshot the video to get a picture of her testing the brake fluid or something I am utterly incompetent at. She looks so matter of fact and reassuring! She was looking forward to offering jobs to other women.
I hope she and her children are still alive but I can find no mention of her in English.
When I share this post on my website,
I can't find the link I promised but the first link mentioned below is the video I watched. I have added another as well.
I know I would feel safe in her car. I doubt she took any nonsense.
نيلة ابو جوباح
#palestine_in_colour
#freepalestine🇵🇸
Palestinian Sunbird
This is a Palestinian sunbird (عصفور الشمس الفلسطيني).
The reference is from Tevaironi, who is a mighty photographer of birds. I hope this counts as fair use. Apparently sunbirds are one of a small group of passerine birds. Of course the males get all the colour. Perhaps I'll paint the beige and brown female next time.
I imagine that seeing this bird flash by with its shiny blue splashes is like me catching sight of a kingfisher while swimming in my local river.
I am thinking of Gazans in their inadequate homemade tents and of countryside Palestinians suffering in many ways from attacks by settlers. Of the killing, the starving and the freezing. Make it stop.
#palestine_in_colour
#freepalestine
Alwassi ram
29th November
Sheep are important in many farming communities. I recently visited the Lake District and loved the Herdwick breed with their wiry grey fleece. I have good photos of sheep in Morocco. But that won't do. Palestine has the Alwassi breed, which is so good, it is popular in Australia!
I used a reference image from Adobe photos by Cilicia. Thank you.
This is كبش الواسي in other words an Alwassi ram. Somebody's pride and joy. At a market, surrounded by other sheep.
Sheep in the West Bank are often stolen, shot or poisoned. That is what farming life under occupation means.
#palestine_in_colour
#freepalestine
Coffee pot
26th November
Palestine is a coffee loving nation. I found plenty of images of espresso machines in now-destroyed coffee shops. But I think most Palestinians use a stovetop coffee pot. I know @kareemkwaik does. ركوة فلسطيني is what it is called.
It is a beaker with a conical base and a long handle. It comes in all varieties from a plain red enamel (I like that one) to engraved or multicolored.
I found this reference on palbox.org. I hope that's ok. I've drawn it by hand and changed the colours a bit.
Palbox.org page about coffee
Iris Haynei
24th November
Iris Haynei, one candidate I found online for Palestinian Iris. The reference is in the seeds of peace.info website.
Other images were a bit more blue, and this is the shade I chose, more of a violet. I hope there are places where this flower blooms wild, or in undisturbed parts of West Bank gardens. Because it is heritage, as much as architecture and poetry.
My love to all who suffer, ineffective as that may be.
Watermelon and cat
20th November
Palestine. بطيخ Watermelon .
Things are getting even worse, God forgive us.
Palestine is known for Watermelons, mainly because you can find each colour of the Palestinian flag in a slice of it.
I looked through my own photos and found my cat, snuggled up to a whole watermelon. Of course all curcubits start of as gourds, with lots of different sorts of markings. I would expect to find both cats and melons in a market in Gaza, if only things were better.
Thinking of you all
Flooded Tents
16th November
This image is a montage of various screenshots I made from reports of flooding in Gaza. So not my images and no credit, except to @translating_falasteen , who gathered such reports.
I want to keep this series hopeful and it will be. The last three days were relentless for people stuck in freezing and sopping wet tents. Children still played outside, many in very wet garments. People hung up wet mattresses somehow. Children cried in the streets from cold. Enjoying heavy rain is a privilege mostly enjoyed by people who have a warm dry place to go.
The weather report is sunny for the next few days. Small comfort but comfort it is.
Olives
14th November
Olives growing on the tree. These are in Portugal, one September years ago. I have stylised the painting a bit, always a temptation with plant life.
Olives are very important in Palestine. And olive trees. They are being destroyed and that is heartbreaking.
Zaytoun (olive) is also the name of an ethical company selling Palestinian produce in the UK.
زيتون
I'll come back later and paint a tree, when I have a reference. They are beautiful silvery- green things.
House Key
11th November
Palestinian families famously carry the key to their old homes. These can be huge ancient wrought iron masterpieces. But recently I saw a young man open the door of his largely destroyed apartment with a perfectly ordinary modern key.
This one is ours. We have a home where we brought up our children and lived with our cats. If I was driven from this home, this is the key I would take with me. It's on a ribbon so we can lend it out to catsitters or take it on a run. It's called "the green key" because for over twenty years, the ribbon was green. I bought a new dark red one but the name stuck.
Family lives are made of objects, stories and pictures. I long for the suffering of those living under oppression to end. Then people can go in to help rebuild. It's not just Palestine but you know that.
Oranges
8th November
Palestine was once famous for oranges. That gets tricky if you can't get your produce past checkpoints. These oranges are from South Africa (not so apartheid these days).
The plate is actually from Praha, Czechia, of all places. I do like orange vs blue.
Palestine flag
3rd November
This is a straightforward painting of the Palestinian flag, fluttering bravely on a pole. It is very similar to other flags of the region, such as Jordan, for example.
There most common way to account for the choice of colours is to refer to a slice of watermelon: Red for the flesh, white for the pith, green for the skin and black for the seeds.