A modern day ‘Orientalist’, artist and author David Bellamy travels widely throughout the Middle East in search of subject matter and is particularly passionate about painting mountainous, desert and coastal landscapes. He has a true gift for capturing the moods of nature in wild places in the watercolor medium and found endless sources of inspiration in the striking natural beauty of Egypt. This Exhibition will feature a combination of Bellamy’s trademark wild landscapes, but also scenes of daily Egyptian life — from the streets of Cairo to the nomadic existence of Bedouins in the desert. However, no artist can visit Egypt without sketching at least some of the ancient monuments.
Bellamy’s watercolors also capture the stunning mountains of Sinai whose impressive naked crags were subject to fascinating color effects as the light changes. Like many 19th Century Orientalists before him, Bellamy is fascinated by the changing effects of light on his surroundings, especially at dusk and dawn. He discovered, for example, that the first half-hour after sunrise is a magical time to catch the warm light moving down the mountainside.
In Cairo the artist was greatly inspired by the architecture — from the lovely old buildings with crumbling stonework to the exotic arches and intricately detailed masharubiya screens covering the windows, where much of the visual excitement lay in what the artist could not see, rather than what was visible.
Whilst the artist went to Egypt to sketch the amazing scenery, it was the warmth and kindness of the Egyptian people who really made his visits there so wonderfully rewarding and entertaining.
For further information:
Mathaf Gallery (www.mathafgallery.com)
David Bellamy
21st Century Painter-Traveller in Egypt
14th – 28th June 2005 at the Mathaf Gallery
