The Gosani Palace

 

 

18th September. First day I have publicised this blog. There is probably as much to come and a few of the bigger paintings aren't represented very well. But I do feel it is readable now - there is a story in it and I am impetuous. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 An account of my stay on a houseboat on Dal Lake, Srinagar, Kashmir.

A while before the real troubles started there.

I stayed there for about three months, painting, although I had spent a fair bit of time there previously with my wife a couple of years earlier.

This page is based around those three months although it will be flavoured by cuttings, postcards, photos from around and about, and before and after that period.

 

From the first visit in 1981

 

And they were peace and quiet sometimes,

a little bit of that premature nostalgia sat o rickety wooden steps

with paddles splashing in the fairly reedy water,

exercise book lined lines of ripple to the couple of rows of boat lights

The spruce pine firs and the velvet dusk line of mountain range.

It gets quieter with the dark.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Studio

 

3 months on a house boat, Based around the set of large watercolours as a kind of show with back up material on each if possible - black and white photos and work from sketch books and letters. And basically tied together from a list of work I made at the end of the trip.

 

 

A student drew this on a train going North for me, I'm still not that bald am I ?

 

link to Face book set of 100 photos:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150344514511424.399544.707526423&type=3&l=e58fd98a84

 

 

There was a little hill on the other side of the lake, at the top was a smallish Hindu temple - it was a fairly short, but strenuous climb with views over Srinagar.

 

 

 

 

View of the Hill with the Gosani Palace on the left and the white Post Office boat in front. (x marks the spot)

 

Dear Mum and Dad, X marks the spot where I am staying, although they have changed the boats around since this picture was taken. Ive had a pretty smooth ride so far with no stomach upsets! I'm sitting in our favourite cafe in town (AxI) arguing with the waiter over prices! - ah! he has just owned up to his fiddle. ----

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The steps leading down from the other side of the hill into the quieter, more residential part of town.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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 full moon above Pahalgam 

 

 

 

 

Boat House

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Five Days in Pahalgam

 

 

 

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 fairy ship sketch

 

 a small spell

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fairy boat etching, made in Folkestone late spring 83 just prior to my second trip.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A phrase I picked up off my mother.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Highway to Nageen Lake

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



24 never never land

 

Next to us was Nehru Park, like a little peninsular splitting Dal Lake, lengthwise. And on the other side: a lake in a bowl of mountains, which opened up into a series of other lakes stretching out quite a long way.

 

 

I was coming back from Nageen Lake by water. It was a gorgeous red sunset that filled up the whole wide sky, backwards and forwards - which in turn was filled with millions of migrating birds going south for winter. The greatest bird experience of my life...

I didn't realise it was an annual one off experience, but went back the next evening armed with a camera to capture an event which didn't happen again.

 

 

 The Gosani Palace was the boat on the left, but this was pretty well the same as the view from there with the little Hindu temple on the top. The most peaceful place I knew in Srinagar.

(Thank you for the days)