World Inspired Landscapes: Türkiye

I got a bit hung up on the design for the Turkey painting, more on that later. Note, that the country recently decided to change their name to the official spelling Türkiye. It has been a geographically important country for as long as humans could walk and migrate because it connects Europe with Asia and the Middle East. All things had to flow through Turkey, not to mention it has water access on both sides making it even more powerful as a geopolitical area. Unfortunately its proximity to the various tectonic plates also make it geologically unstable, its one of the most earthquake prone areas in the world owing to several tectonic fault lines. When the land separates and creates an indentation its called a gorge, or a canyon. This is different than a valley which forms between two steep mountains. Turkey is known for its rocks features, there is even an area called love valley where numerous phallic-shapes rock buttes stand tall. In the painting I depicted a gorge, with lush green growth at the bottom due to the accumulation of water. The rest of the landscape looked arid and desolate.

World Inspired Landscapes: Türkiye (Turkey) watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2025

 

So the reason I got hung up on the composition was the idea to make a landscape painting out of Turkish delights... these are popular Turkish confectioneries made of gelatinous flour and sugar with red colouring and sometimes a pistachio in the center. The cubes are about one square inch, and covered in powdered sugar. Actually I did this one first, now that I see it on the blog I am liking it more and more. Its a sweet painting. When doing the second, more realistic painting, I infused some magenta colours inspired by the Turkish delights.

World Inspired Landscapes: Turkish delights, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2025