Anuradhapura art trip

DAY 1 we left colombo train station early in the morning at about 5:50am and we arrived in Anuradhapura a historical region in Sri lanka at about 10 am. That was a 5 hour long train ride which is an less that a bus trip to Anuradhapura. Even though the train ride wa bumpy and uncomfortable I would not have gone ona train in Srilanka otherwise. Our day began with a trip to a mueseum.. that did not go well because they would not let us in so instead we went to visit the temple called IssuruMulaniya. There I took pictures around the temple and out of the temple area and managed to produce pretty decent pictures in which i would have to edit once I get home. While at the temple I also sketched a picture of the front part of the temple itself. Today I produced some photographs and 2 sketches. my goal for this trip is to create 10 piecec of work. 4 photographs, 4 sketches, 1 painting,1 soft pastel. so tommorow I will try to sketch two more sketches so I would have completed my sketch goal and I will also take more pictures so by the end of the trip I will choose the four best onces. The reason I want to finish of the sketches is because I want to work on a painting the following day. This trip was all I expected- Sketching/photography and creating artwork. DAY 2 Today we went to a stone bridge at first there I took more photographs and experimented with different compositions and angles. Then we went to the Lova sabhawa temple area and we got a demonstration on how to use acrylic paint/charcoal. I tooka seat by a tree and then I started to sketch out a tree infront of me with my charcoal and then later i started to paint. Ifound it really reaxing and soothing to the mind. as for my artwork itself I could have done thin strokes as the grass. ocerall I still think my skills with acrylics could be improved but even so I found that I quite liked painting scenary. I find it easier to sketch the final piece out before painting the whole scenary I guess I could try paining a scene as a whole next time I try to paint a scenary. DAY 3 Today we went to mihintale which is a sacred and historical area of Anuradhapura. It took us about 30 minuits to get there. The first locaion we went to was really scenic and it was really inspirational. I think it provided more inspiration than all the other locations because it had a more variety of things to draw. It was not just trees, this location had a lake,mountain and different view points and angles to sketch from. I found that working outside was really peaceful but at the sametime it was frsutrating because the lighting kept changing and it was hard to pinpoint what tone/shade I should use in that particular area. After eating lunch we went to the main Mihintale area. One thing I learned from this trip was that that was the place where Buddism was first introduces to Srilanka and that was pretty interesting because I li

- Sketching at the temple ruins ke to know more and more about my host county and their culture. DAY 4 TOday we took 2 hours to reach the plce that has the largest Budda statue in Srilanka, like the previous days we sketched. I got to experiment with soft pastel and I quite liked how my finished piece turned out. Working in a quiet area like a temple was really soothing because everything was silent and everyone was working quietly. Once positie thing about this trip was that it was a trip dedicated to art. I think that I have developed my art skills to an extent because normally I would not have gotton out with a sketchbook and start sketching any onject infront of me but I think that this experience has actually helped me grow as an artist. This concludes my week without walls.

- Painting inside the temple grounds