Book 25: ACTUAL SIZE

OTTOMAN CUTOUTS

*-Coney Island-type face cutouts of a couple dresse in Ottoman splendor at a museum in Plovdiv -TriciVenola 2010*

HAPPY KRASI

I met Krasi on my second trip to Plovdiv years before this drawing and just loved her. This turned out to be my last trip. I hope you are still happy, dear Krasi!

Back in Sultanahmet with the usual suspects.

DRAW MY PEECHOR

DEAR ÇETIN BEY

*-Emlak Çetin Çimen -Fabulous face former cop Çetin Bey the best Emlak in Istanbul*

A real champion. I had to leave my beloved Sultanahmet apartment thanks to airbnb, which had also driven rents up alarmingly, so I moved across the Golden Horn where I knew nobody. This wonderful emlak (realtor) found me a good place and a good rent. A prince of a guy. He’s since retired, and I hope he is happy.

COOL ON A HOT NIGHT

*-Gülsün cool on a hot evening in Tunel -Simdi Cafe -TriciVenola July ©2010*

Gulsun is the manager of a very cool cafe in Tunel. I no sooner met her than I had to draw her.

USED TO BE HOT

*-Knows he’s being drawn…he used to be be beautiful. -Guys smoking in the tea garden -TriciVenola ©February 2010*

*Wall in Asmalimescit in 2005. Photo by Scott Stuhlberg*

A WALL IN ASMALIMESCIT

*-Wall of the old Russian Consulate before renovation. -TriciVenola August ©2010*

In 2017, I actually hauled out this old sketchbook and hoofed it over to Asmalimescit to finish drawing the wall, only to discover it had already been smoothly plastered into something like plastic.

ISTANBUL ROUE

A break during work on a commission to draw Arter Art Museum, shown below.

ARTER TOP

*-22April 2010-Freezing wind, brilliant sun-29April 2:20PM ©TriciVenola 2010*

Hard on the heels of the move from Sultanahmet to Cihangir came a fine commission to draw Arter, the Koç Foundation’s new modern art museum on Istiklal. It was in a grand old building that had housed one of their banks. It was far too large and detailed to fit in a standard sketchbook size, so I went with a triptych: three 50 x 70 cm boards. I set up in across the Istiklal from Arter, and went to work. Here’s the top.

Each drawing is 50 X 70 cm, about five times bigger than the sketchbook drawings.

ARTER MIDDLE

*Pounding drums, relentless detail -12 May ©TriciVenola 2010*

I love to do portraits, and all my Turkish work is portraiture: a picture of a person or a place, or both, at that moment in time. So the reflections on the windows, the streetlamps, the trolley lines, and the passersby are all part of this portrait of Arter when it opened in Spring of 2010.

ARTER BASE

This ornate Ottoman Splendor architecture is the hardest thing for me to draw. It’s unforgiving, any mistake compounds right across the page, demanding total concentration. So this last, with the people walking between me and the base of the building, was a lot of fun. They’re all actual passersby and those who posed enjoyed being part of a drawing.

Arter just relocated to Dolopdere. The building is still there on Istiklal.

OWL WOMAN ON ISTIKLAL

*-Owl-woman on the Istiklal where worlds collide. Was she once a young girl with beautiful eyes? -TriciVenola ©2010*

More fast takes on Istiklal passers-by, done to relax during the Arter commission.