Hagia Sophia Mini Series!

The original Hagia Sophia painting, "Night Birds over Hagia Sophia"

After the "Paintings, Prints and Pizza!" Exhibition at the FPPP, I was approached to do another painting of the Hagia Sophia by a gentleman who had heard a legend that the seagulls flying over Hagia Sophia were the souls of drowned concubines tossed into the Bosphorus when they had fallen out of favour with the Sultan.

Planning Sketch for "Evening Call to Prayer, Hagia Sophia"( I forgot the moon!)

Surely I could understand that the birds were too happy to be drowned concubines in the painting on the wall? He was right- far too joyful! So my commission was to paint another Sophia with more serious looking 'female' birds.

"Evening Call to Prayer, Hagia Sophia"

Taking the pigeons I painted in the Sultanahmet Bird Feeders painting as a source, I decided that I wanted to paint a picture that looked like the call to prayer had begun and the birds were fleeing the sound. As one admirer had once remarked, the wings formed crescent moons- quite fitting for a call to prayer painting, so I thought they would be a good fit for the next painting of the Hagia Sophia. to make them look 'more serious', I painted them with beaks closed and without gangly-looking seagull legs.

But I decided to take it a step further and began researching the outfits of the Ottoman concubines, and decided in the whimsical spirit of Rie Munoz, I would paint the concubines flying with the seagulls. Why not? I was a lot of fun to paint this one, though technically much harder than the first because of the details of the costume.

"Concubines over Hagia Sophia"

Both paintings were very much liked by the gentleman, and after a few cups of tea in the cafe and much scrutiny, he went home with the ladies. I'll miss them, but happy they have finally found a good home!

"Concubines over Hagia Sophia" detail.

Creative Caravan Travels to Java Studio, Sultanahmet!

Tile prints in the passageway between the main rooms.

A big thank you to Virginia Lowe, formally of the Family Pizza Pie Place for inviting us to show in her new Cafe/Restaurant, the Java Studio in Sultanahmet. Rene and I spent the morning hanging the show (which was a lot easier this time without the need for the fishing wire web!). It's now up along side some other fantastic watercolours and pen and ink drawings by other artists in the Istanbul area.

View of the entrance room of the cafe. Most of our stuff is here!

Rene's Coffee Pots in the main room.

"Edirne Mosque Study" in the main room.

Prints in the passageway between the rooms!

I will be there most mornings for chit chat and coffee drinking. Come down, drink some coffee and check out all the Java Studio has to offer!

See you there!

XX Melanie