It was a somewhat successful day here in Maadi, Cairo for me today. It was the usual routine for me, although I came up with the near perfect algorithm for painting such a complex view of Road 233. It is painted from the view of the rooftop of Bekkah’s apartment building. I started roughly at 2:00 after breakfast and coffee. I have been unable to sleep well, so I end up sleeping when I can which is usually when the sun comes up. I don’t understand why I can’t sleep. Perhaps I do, perhaps its something to do with Bekkah, and her mood swings causing me not to sleep. I only had one panel left anyway so so I wouldn’t be able to paint any more anyway unless I worked on the same painting every day. I like the slap dash sketchy style that I paint and I prefer to not continue to push my plein air paintings beyond the initial color sketch. If I feel compelled I will take the painting into the studio in the future.
I began this painting with a thin Transparent red oxide tone over the panel, and I did the drawing in a purpleish tone made of white, French Ultramarine, and alizarin Crimson. After the drawing was established I painted the greens to key the depth of the painting, as well as keying the values. I didn’t touch the sky until later. Usually I key the sky first, and even paint it first, but I felt that it would be a bad choice this time around, because I didn’t see anything epic happening in the sky at this time. I love epic skies, with peachy oranges, pinks and purples with the blue sky peering through, and apocalyptic fires off in the distance. That was my vision for this painting.
After painting the greens keeping the sky in mind I began to paint the architecture carefully with very precise brush strokes. I would maintain the drawing by chopping the shapes with other overlapping brush strokes. This is what I love about painting. Making all the puzzle pieces of nature’s complexity in front of me all fit together. I get a rush from this simple pleasure.
Once the architecture is established I moved to a different spot on the rooftop where one of the most fantastic sunsets unfolded in front of me, and I went for it. I am fairly happy with the result, but I wish I designed the clouds a bit better. Its difficult when everything changes so quickly.
After painting Bekkah and I take a cab to our last dinner together, most likely ever.
In retrospect, I came to Cairo to leave my bad energy between Bekkah and I here. We had a falling out the last night. I don’t ever want to talk to her again or see her again. She wasted two years of my life while I was in school and I can never forgive her for that. If she didn’t leave me ten days before I arrived back home, I would have given her the most incredible life she could have possibly imagined. What a shame how it had to work out.
I leave for Italy tomorrow. I still have the final stretch to make it out of this god forsaken place. I’m sure I will be fine. I can move on with my life now, and I have found the answers that I was looking for. I know have closure with this dead relationship and I am happy to be moving on. There were many lessons learned, and I am glad to have earned such amounts of wisdom.