Desperately Seeking Wi-Fi

Desperately seeking Wi-Fi, no I haven’t disappeared off the face of the earth, I moved my studio to the Maldives! 

Why, when Europe is basking in a heatwave would you head off to the tropics where rain is on the cards every day?  

Well probably because the view in my back garden doesn’t look like this! (No filters, the water really is that turquoise!) 

Wi-Fi wasn't too great (that's why my efforts to blog went to pot!),  unfortunately the food was, which has led to a little post holiday blues! To distract myself from the temptations of my fridge, let's have a look at what I got up to artwise.

Sketching was on the cards and with humidity at about 90% (and with those rainy season showers 100%) it was a challenge. I took minimal sketching kit, a couple of pencils, fine pens, watercolours and watercolour pencils, and my usual go to Boesner sketchbook. 

First problem was my sketchbook, it soaked up the humidity and drawing on it felt like drawing on a piece of soggy kitchen roll, problem number 2 the watercolour pencils absorbed the moisture too and turned pasty and yucky. Still managed to get some sketching done as you can see (between cocktails and fab Maledivian curries), having left this sketch to slurp on something cool, a tropical rain shower hit it and helped me to get that ''watery'' feel, resulting in those pink blotches, frantic drying with the hairdryer and a final run over with an iron. 

The Maldives are over 1000 islands in the Indian Ocean, fabulous for diving or snorkelling, this is now my third visit and yes things have changed since my first visit in the early 1990’s. Don't get me wrong I'm not an eco warrior but the increasing number of tourists are creating problems: the reefs are suffering (global warming, construction, divers/snorkelling), supplying all the resorts with food/drinks (everything has to be transported into the islands) means increases in shipping and huge amounts of plastic waste (most of the drinks on our island were in small plastic bottles) and the capacity on the tiny islands is being increased by building “over water” bungalows, damaging reefs and increasing the amount of refuse. It is such a pity that we as tourists are responsible for ruining what made the islands attractive ....... tiny islands, with fabulous marine life and that Robinson Crusoe feeling. 

As I love beachcombing I did try to do my bit by collecting any plastic I found on the beach and saw other tourists doing likewise. Nice to think that you can do a little although it is only a drop in the (Indian) Ocean.