One of my watercolours of Bilad Seet can be seen in my Sketchbook of Oman. The painting above of Bilad Sayt can be seen at my Studio & Gallery in Ponteland. You may have noticed 4 different spellings of Bilad Seet, Bald Sayt, Bilat Sayt and Balad Seet. I’ve seen all of these spellings in various books and on road signs. Oman is full of remote villages like Bald Sayt as well as ancient forts and towers. Over the last few years many of these ancient dwellings have become much more accessible through modern roads, but up unitl now, the mountain village of Bilad seet is not one of them. This large watercolour painting has been inspired by the off road journey I made there when I was able to make a sketchbook study and take a number of photographs. This original watercolour has been painted on hand-made Fabriano Esportazione which is no longer being manufactured. The very rough textured surface is incredible to paint on in watercolour. You can create some amazing textures and “wet on wet” effects. I’ve been to the Fabriano paper Mill in the Marches region of Italy on two occasions to purchase their beautiful paper and leather bound sketchbooks. I started to use their sketchbooks to paint “en plein air” just after my first visit to their factory in 2002 . After using up my sketchbook supplies from Fabriano, I now make my own leather bound sketchbooks, a very rewarding process.
