Egypt Sketchbook Part 3

The wedjat eyes of Horus, the falcon god, all knowing.



I started this sketchbook in March. Spent time reading about Egypt before all the faces came together as a people instead of individual statues and sarcophagi.

Ancient life had a seasonal rhythm around the rising of the Nile, flooding of the fields, preparing for the crops that will feed a people for the coming year. The pharoah looked ahead, put aside food for a drought year, employed men in construction of burial sites and temples during the flood season when men could not tend the farms. Perhaps they were better planners than the world, 4000 years later.

Egyptian Sketchbook Part 2

Egyptian facebook.
Pakap, overseer of cultivated lands and scribes.
Tjayasetimu, 900 BC, singer of god's wife.
Padiamente, 700 BC, attendent and doorkeeper of the god Re at Thebes.
To the left is more of my antique necklace.

Heart scarab from the 18th dynasty. The heart was considered to be the seat of intelligence. It was the only organ left intact during the mummification process. All other organs were placed in four jars covered with god animal heads. The brain, considered mere stuffing for the skull, was removed and discarded through the sinus, replaced with sawdust.

Amenwahsu, overseer of granary. The image of the deceased is often shown holding baskets of grain or implements of harvest.

The god Horus, a falcon or hawk, his eye is a frequent symbol, "making whole", having regenerative powers. Wedjat Eyes appear on coffins, walls, as an amulet.

Egypt Sketchbook Part 1

Egyptian sketch journal via internet photographs and lots of library research. 31 painted panels, 9 feet, in a small accordion moleskine. I am lucky to have a library with a wonderful rare book room. They have a Tuttle book that unfolds to about 9 feet, a continuous folding Japanese painted screen.

Thinking about clothes to take to Egypt, my Lizard Island t-shirt, canvas hiking boots, an antique necklace of fruits carved in metal with the blossom and seed(s) on the underside of the fruit half. Thought this necklace would fit in well, a meeting of one art piece in a country of rich history and art.

Researching Egypt has been a pleasure. 90% of the country is desert so the patterns of desert sand and sky flow through the sketch journal.