World Inspired Landscapes: Turkmenistan

 

I initially though that Turkmenistan would be yet another mountainous country like neighboring Afghanistan or nearby Tajikstan, however the vast majority of Turkmenistan is flat plains and steppes. Just a few rivers bring waster into fertile stretches of land, while the remainder is mostly desert. A large salt lake sits on the west part of the country next to the Caspian Sea. The salt lake has been a source of wealth for a long time, since there are valuable minerals to be extracted and the salt itself is valuable. In one valley, they are incredible rock formations, even more spectacular than the grand canyon. At one particular location there is a rocky outcrop that influencers, and/or people who risk their lives to take a picture of themselves, will sit there and pose infront of the scene. It looks kind of dangerous to me, but indeed a spectacular landscape. I usually talk more about the history, and the story of Turkmenistan is that it suffered a bit from being a flat, indefensible terrain that fell under the regional powers of the time. For instance, its name is a Persian word, because all countries ending in 'stan, used to be part of the Persian empire. It actually had one of the largest trading centers on the silk road in antiquity.

When planning the painting, what struck me most was the overhead satellite image seen on Google Maps. The sweeping, extraterrestrial landscape was stunning, like a view of mars when it had water. The painting is loosely based on the satellite view of the large salt basin Garabogazköl Lagoon, where the briny water meets the arid desert. Unfortunately when the industry drains the brine from the lagoon, it causes powdery salt to blow around the adjacent soil which poisons the agriculture and contaminates fresh water sources. To create the fantastic textures and flowing colours of the landscape, I used a heavy wet-in-wet technique that I called the colour splash technique. Adding to that, I employed some of the highest 'granulating pigments' available including bloodstone genuine (Daniel Smith, its a hematite iron oxide pigment) and goethite, another granular earth pigment. On the left I used turquoise (PB16) and lemon vanadium (PY184) which I thought would be strong enough to stand up to the earth pigments. The whole thing was a puddle that I tilted and drained until it seemed to look okay. Luckily, two round white spaces formed, I don't know why that happened, there must have been imperfections in the paper. I left the image in a high resolution so you should be able to tap and zoom in. I like how the goethite bled into the turquoise water, and how the salty brine blended into the hematite pigment. Somehow it ended up looking just like, or even better than the satellite view.

World Inspired Landscapes: Turkmenistan, watercolour 7 x 10" hot press, April 2025