I knew when I snapped this shot that a) I’d got lucky and b) it was perfect to paint.
It needed something better in the front left foreground so I ‘imported’ some of these lovely cushions and lanterns.
I began with some block collage laid down to paint over – a piece of Arabic writing I picked up whilst in Marrakesh and a chocolate wrapper in the style of some of the tiles I’d seen there.
After washing in some colours I drew in the structure.
And continued to layer it up with paint – making textures, scratching into paint and printing too.
I love how their body language translates this couples kind of nonchalance and conversation as they strolled along.
It’s a challenge to paint so differently to normal but I love all the layers of print and texture showing through and it seems the perfect way to capture Marrakesh.
