Painter's Smock

Found this delightful grey smock in the Plus Size rack for $5 a sequined tank for $2 and rayon sienna colored trousers for $1.00.  Terrific painting outfit I say. Who cares if a little oil paint gets spattered about on an outfit under $10? And I am ready for the patrons and collectors who gather outside my studio door in search of the latest and best paintings. Certainly they would be more impressed with an artist who wears an outfit such as this as opposed to a ragged tee shirt and dirty jeans.  I will wear the combo many times. It will inform my work. I will paint in colors of sienna, Payne’s grey, shrimp, and add a little bit of aubergine. Soon I will show you the results. 

I am thinking of Zanzibar, of the dark, back alleys and the smoky nights, and the warm colors. Hauntings and Memories I will try to pull out of the brush.   Gather the jangles of bicycles and twitter of birds. Capture the festive streets with merchants peddling hand crafted wears from tiny shops open to the air.

I will travel through memory now in my painter’s smock.

15. Wandering in Stone Town

Espresso by the sea. Wandering the streets alone followed by men wanting to guide. Oasis at Emerson Spice House. Elegant. Seductive. Fit for a Zanzibar Princess.

Zanzibar Coffee House. lunch sanctuary. Sketch. Eat. Hide.

Matilda sleeps under a tent of white In a room of blue facing the sea.

Arabian Night.

#14. Indian Ocean Breeze

Day of monkeys. Flocks of schoolgirls flapping wraps like little white nuns fluttering.

Compliment cappuccino at Archipelago after grilled giant prawns dining high above the sea. Calls to Prayer from 40 mosques. Stiff breeze in the crackling palms. Dhows gliding silhouetted on the glassy sea at twilight. Rooftop under pink sky. Red tin roofs. White robed men. Beautiful women in long robes, colorful head wraps, carry themselves like princesses. Fine features, slender bodies, graceful carriage. Strolling on the sea promenade. All slow motion. Pink fade.

Lacy dark balconies on whitewashed stone buildings 300 years old. Dancing palms. Polite merchants taking "no thank you" responding "OK. Be Happy"

Whitewashed room. Everything white except the mahogany bed shrouded in yards of netting. Central courtyard fountain Palms. Vases of bougainvillea. Dark lacy balconies. Shadows of women blue wrapped heads washing washing the dust away.

Dark faces like shadows appearing. Disappearing. Down narrow alleys. Time like long ago.

Cultures mixing Arab, Swahili, European, cappuccino skin. Fine features. High cheekbones. Sometime blue eye. Ebony skin. Almond eyes. Smoky nights. Secrets. Slow. Slow.

# 12. Goodby Tanzania hello Zanzibar

Luggage packed. Terrible rutted dusty 3 plus hours in land rover to Arusha. Flight to Zanzibar tiny plane. Cessna 12 seater.

13. The Spice Island

Warm breeze from Indian Ocean white snapper crystal clear water.

Charming and ancient World Heritage site. Narrow maze like street mixing Arab, Indian, Europeans. Calls to prayer from 40 some mosques in town. Frozen two centuries Ago Like a movie set. Persian Portuguese and Omani and Swahili cultures. In hovels and grand mansion fruit and fish market. Former slave market for 300 years. Lunch at Dr Livingston I presume? Before he explores inner Africa. On the beach under the fig.

African. Arab. Indian. European,Omani behind elaborate carved doors.

Market meat and chickens

Dhows floating on the Indian Ocean. spicy cooking. Calls to prayer. Young western era reading novels alone under a fig tree or opening a hotel. Matilda attracts much attention with her sketching.

Dinner by the lapping sea at Eddie Mercury's spot. "We are the champions". Stiff breeze. Serenade. Lantern light. King fish and chapati.

Rough ride in 6 foot swells to swim with 50 dolphins