Marrakech (Part 1)

Last month I travelled to Marrakesh and have so much to tell you about this wonderful city. In fact, I have so much to tell you that I'm going to break it into two blog posts. The great thing about travelling is the stories you come back with the photography that you can share.

I have never been to Marrakesh and I imagined it to be very similar to some parts of Tunisia that I have previously travelled to with Souks and winding streets. I got quite a shock initially because all the Souks in Sousse were on an incline and therefore only space for pedestrians. Marrakesh isn't like this at all! As well as pedestrians on the streets there are donkeys, horses, carts, cars, vans, mopeds and motorbikes to deal with. I was quite overwhelmed at first at just how busy it was although once I got used to it, I absolutely loved it.

There is so much to see everywhere you turn in Marrakesh and one of my favourite things was the number of people who craft out on the streets. Whether they were working leather, turning wood, working metal or dyeing fabrics and yarn, there was just so much to admire. Every single crafter was very talented and being able to share this with my son Indi was an amazing experience.

For his part, Indy coped really well with the whole trip as he's a bit older now and can walk about easily. He was really interested in everything we saw and it was great to share so much with him. I would say his favourite thing was definitely the camel rides and he was well looked after because Moroccans love small children. Everywhere we went he got lots of attention and this culture is definitely one that embraces children exploring their environment.

This wasn't the most restful of holidays as you can imagine because it was just so stimulating and inspirational. There is constant noise and hustle and things to see at all times of day (I will tell you little bit more about this in the next post). For now I want to share some of the wonderful colour inspiration that I'm looking forward to drawing from when I next had the chance to play an experiment in the studio.