Kul Sharif Mosque

Well the month between my last post and today disappeared rather quickly! I blame this in part on having an extravagant birthday week filled with cake, spas, meals out and maybe the odd cocktail.

The detox, exercise regime and money saving tips are now ON. (Or trying to be, I think the only one I am succeeding in currently is the exercise *she types whilst having a massive marshmallow filled hot chocolate!*)

Errrr...anyway....

Today, I am signing up to see if I can sell on 'Not on the High Street' and trying out a new cushion supplier. There is a chance I may be able to get my cushions printed in the UK instead of the US which would be perfect, especially as then my gift vouchers can be used against them. I also heard from the BBC Arts team earlier in the week asking if I wanted to take part in a documentary about the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. God damn, not getting through the first judging round (again) Next year.....!! Still, an email enquiry in the first place must be a good thing?

But moving on, as part of my birthday celebrations, I took a trip around Windsor Castle whereupon I realised my painting of St George's Gate, was actually a painting of Norman Gate. This has made me feel obliged, to provide some slightly more accurate information about my latest painting in order to make up for the error. For some reason I had my painting of the Nossa Senhora Cathedral de Lourdes on my mind (see left) and I decided I wanted to paint another, small portrait of a Church (or religious building). So please welcome an internet hole inspired picture I found whilst Sunday afternoon surfing after typing in 'exciting / unusual / weird Churches' into Google and seeing what happened.  The building that caught my eye was the Kul Sharif Mosque in Kazan, Russia. It is in fact a new building, completed in 2005, created to replace the original Kul Sharif Mosque that was destroyed in 1552 by Ivan the Terrible. Whilst it still functions as a mosque, it is predominately used as a Museum to Islam, and here is my interpretation of it.

So let's hope the facts about this painting are true. Wikipedia never lies right? And I'll try to make sure I name my paintings a bit better in the future (maybe, probably not!)!