LUXOR TEMPLE PILLARS (WAP; Egypt #6)

Luxor is a city divided in half by the River Nile.  On the East are the Temples, on the West are the tombs.  We started our visit to Luxor on the East & the first thing we wanted to do was visit the Luxor Temple.  First we had to get there!  To set the scene, here's an edited version of what happened enroute...

" After surviving the walk to Luxor Temple on foot & in tact, we felt a great sense of satisfaction! It had involved following a line drawn map with no street names...because most streets don't have street names visible on them.... avoiding piles of donkey dung, alfalfa feed, kids on motorbikes, men sitting outside their shops smoking shisha, men trying to keep the dust down outside their shops by swooshing buckets of water, cars, vans, trucks & the consistent cry of horse & buggy drivers, trying to offer us a ride as they whipped their horses! That's not to mention the number of locals, drawn to us like magnets...all wanting to sell us something! "

You can imagine, having experienced all that, how the relative peace & calm of the Temple complex with so few visitors, was overwhelming in it's contrast.  We sat at the cafe to revive ourselves after the trauma of getting there & just gazed at this site with the sun dropping behind it.

What a privilege to be there!

If I chose to, I could easily do the next few months worth of Weekly Art Projects focused solely on this Temple, there was just so much to take in visually & mentally.

For this week though, I've chosen the lotus pillars of the second courtyard.  They were huge & to see them with the setting sun as a back drop was spectacular.

I did do drawings beforehand as per usual, however I forgot to photograph them...sorry! 

My colour scheme was chosen & soon ironed before I layered up to begin stitching the design in.

It was then time to start cutting back.  Here's how I did it this week...

I rather liked it in the previous stage where the pillars are just there in a background & foreground of light, but I continued on with my plan & brought the blue in to create a background.

With a few additional touches it was finished.

This weekly art project has been completed over 4 days, which has meant I have been frustrated with the stop/start nature of working.  It is so much more fulfilling when I can follow momentum & get the project done all in one go!  However, given the time of year & all the other things that life throws in, at least I got something done!

Am I pleased with it? Sigh. Screwing up of face.  Tilting head one way & then tilting it the other...it's...ok.  I'm aware that the photos aren't brilliant because I had a few camera & light issues at times, but even so, I would have been better to have chosen a more dramatic contrast between the lightest 2 fabrics.  When seen as large pieces side by side, there appears to be a good contrast with differeng patterns to add interest, but in this design the areas where the fabric shows are relatively small & that contrast is lost.

Nevertheless, I am happy to have this memory reimagined in this piece.  Can't wait to see what Luxor Temple inspires me to recall next time.  Happy creating!