Maarten Ruijters' photostream  

Dear all,

Tuesday February 7 I will give a lecture (in Dutch) about perspective drawing.
I will discuss various methods of depicting 3-D space on a 2-D plane in history and in different cultures, as well as perpective plays (like in the work of Escher), trompe l'euil, anamorphosis, etc.
You are welcome!

Place: Museon, Den Haag, Netherlands.
More info: www.museon.nl/nl/node/3281?delta=0

Latali is located 9 km west of Mestia and consists of several hamlets.
There are about 25 family churches dating from the 11-12th century, but most of them ruined,
The area is very rural, mud roads lead you to time-frozen off-the-beaten-track spots.

Top row:
The Taringzeli - Archangel's Church (village Matskhvarishi) - has an interesting single apse.
The Maktsvari church (village Latali) has beautful and unique interior wall paintings from 1142.

Bottom row:
Farmer's house
Electricity pole and transformer in need of maintenance

pencil and watercolor 24 x 31

View from the balcony of Hotel GTM in Avlabari district.
In the foreground Metekhi Church, very popular by Georgian pilgrims.
Between the church and the houses - but out of sight - is Mtkvari gorge, where the river flows.
Behind is Sololaki ridge with the impressive remains of Narikala Fortess with the Church of St Nicolas.

On the far right is the modernistic glass and concrete business centre, built by the Georgian-Russian multi-billionaire Boris Ivanishvili. This makes me aware of the fact that nowadays Georgian hilltops are no longer solely the domain of fortresses, churches and monasteries, but also of billionares.The fact that he apparantly could get a building permission on such a prominent site evokes mixed feelings on Georgian politics.

Watercolor and pencil 24 x 31

Alaverdi St. George Cathedral (first half of the 11th century ) is the second highest cathedral in Georgia (55 meters) after the recently consecrated Tbilisi Sameba Cathedral.
The interior is extremely imposing and has no analogy in Georgia.

The monks were very keen on maintaining the ban on photography inside.
But apparently they did not see any harm in sketching; on the contrary, they were quite interested in what I did.
I was comfortably seated on the curved stone bench against the wall of the south apse.
In this case the vanishing point is in heaven, were pious people hope to go when they vanish themthelves...

pencil and watercolor 24 x 31

This monastery has a long and turbulent history.
It was founded in the 6th century by David Gareja, one of the 13 "Syrian fathers" who returned from the middle East and spread Christianity in Georgia *
The solitude and barrenness of the rocky semi-desert were an ideal spot to avoid him from worldly concerns.
The complex grew until there were 17 monasteries spread over a wide area.
Fresco painting and calligraphy flourished here,
Easter Night 1615 Persian soldiers massacred 6000 monks and destroyed the works of art.
In the Soviet ara the area was used for militairy exercises and the monastery used as a shooting target.
Recently the brick buildings were restored to their former glory; on older photographs you see just ruins.

It was an strange experience to sit here and draw.
I had found shelter from the burning summersun in the shade of a hermit's cave, seated on a stone bench cut out of the massive rock.
It was completely silent, exept for the hollow sound of dripping water in a well behind me, like a ticking clock.
Were those drops the miraculous St. David's tears, which appeared after he prayed for several days with all his heart?
In a way the drops acted as a bridge which connected me with the hermit who lived here centuries ago.

pencil and watercolor 24 x 31

*) another monastery built by a Syrian Father is Nekresi Monastery www.flickr.com/photos/33427270@N05/6261379025/

More info: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Gareja_monastery_complex