I'm off to Ethiopia

No! This lovely piece of work is not one of my paintings!

I shall not be posting now until the end of February as I am off to Ethiopia to help run a programme for project managers who work with the poor communities. I’m sad to have to suspend my painting activities but happy to be going back to Addis Ababa. I will try but I doubt there will be much spare time for sketching even. If there is and if I get access to the Internet I might try to post something.

I am taking with me a couple of paperbacks – Private lives of the Impressionists by Sue Roe and The Yellow House by Martin Gayford (the story of Van Gogh and Gaugin when they shared a house in Arles). That should provide a nice contrast to the daily work!

Whatever your political views may be, the ordinary people of Ethiopia deserve a chance and that’s why I am more than happy to spare time out for them (I am getting paid for this by the way by organisations more wealthy than the Ethiopians). It is a wonderful opportunity to renew acquaintances there and hopefully see more of that fascinating country. Ethiopia is old beyond all imagination. This country was Abysinnia whose culture and traditions date back over 3000 years. As in many ‘developing’ countries art and painting are not given the prominence that we enjoy in the west but the level of innate talent and skill remains the same. There is little Internet evidence of that as yet but I thought you might like to browse this little web site which has collected together examples of the work of some current Ethiopian artists. Click on the name of the artist then on Gallery to see their work portfolio. Then click on your ‘Back’ browser button to start again.

Click this link to enter the web site