Jaisalmer, India

During this month, I was able to meet a lot of people. My days were spent just wandering around the old city, finding places to sit and paint. The city was old and close together, so I'd usually be sitting on people's front steps. There was only one incident of a crazy lady who yelled at me and told me to get off her porch unless I gave her some money. Everyone else in the entire country would invite me in for chai all the time. Sometimes it was difficult to get any painting done. The times when I was working, people would just sit and watch. There would always be a crowd. There's no painting incognito in India.

The Patwon Havelli is a big tourist hot spot, so I'd see many people come by here. The people watching was superb. There was also a group of high quality locals who lived and worked around here that treated me extremely well. I promised one man a print of the above painting, but when I went to give it to him, his store was all close up. Apparently his grandfather passed away and for the next ten days there was a gathering of older folks who just sat and talked. On the tenth day, which was the day before I was leaving, I stopped by to try to find him one more time an fortunately he was there. I painted at this spot a few times. There were a couple of good guys here who sold clothes, postcards and other knicknacks to the big tourist groups. It was fun to watch these guys try to sell there stuff to all the old white people. India likes the hard sale. They only have a couple minutes so they have to go in strong. I never finished this painting because there was a guy on this street who really annoyed me. I like the way the painting is now though, so I think it'll stay like this. The guy kept on bugging me to do his portrait so I didn't want to go back. I'm not sure what makes people assume I want to spend my time giving away portraits to strangers.   Group 1 | Group 2 | Group 3 << Back to Current Happenings