light in darkness

I was asked to pick the highlight of my first day of the tour.  There were a ton of them to choose from: visiting a Byzantine church-cum-mosque-cum-museum gem and a Roman cistern, and the spice market and mosques with carpet underfoot and tiles overhead, the smell of smoke and hot corn and chestnuts, and the smell of watermelon cut in huge luscious chunks, and sharing an early evening drink on a quiet tree-lined street with 2 top architects talking about religion and family history and Japanese economics. 

But for me, the highlight was sitting in the courtyard of a Mosque designed by famous Turkish architect Sinan.  He was born in Anatolya in 1491 and educated in Istambul to become a military engineer, but got plucked by the sultan Suleyman 1 to become the imperial architect.  He was the closest Turkey ever got to having a Renaissance architect and designed many wonderful buildings still in use let alone existence. I think he must have won the favour of more than just the sultan, as he lived to a whopping 97.

This particular place that we visited today is known as the Gazi Ahmet Pasha Mosque, built in an octagonal form with a large courtyard, and a fountain at the centre for the washing of the feet.  Built in the walls are individual rooms for students, and a few large rooms for collective study.  Sitting there, I had no idea that we were in the middle of bustling Istanbul - there was only one part of one building that I could see from the courtyard.  There were two trees with flowers planted in circles below them.  The walkway between the courtyard and the rooms was covered and shaded, a serene place to sit.

While all the other students went abougt their sketching, Eric came over to give me my first lesson in drawing.  He suggested that the best way to draw a straight line is not to draw a straight line.  In other words, plant your hand, and move your fingers only to draw a squiggly line. And then don't draw over it.  Don't turn your hand to make a slanted line, but rather turn your page so that you are drawing another straight (squiggly) line. In fact, don't draw a line at all, but let your pencil (H or B) skip a bit as it goes.  Map out a building by dividing the place into sections of straight lines first.  Eureka!

Of all the riches I experienced today, the very best one was sitting in that peaceful, quiet courtyard in an exquisitely beautiful building getting a private drawing lesson from a pro who is also one of my best friends. 

a restful place still used as an Islamic school

EJ doing what EJ does extremely well indeed!