Divine Architecture

I spent time near the Husseini mosque in Cairo, in the bazaar at Khan el Khalili, and there is a particular quality to that place that I have never quite been able to shake. The noise, the colour, the smoke, the way everything layers on top of everything else and somehow still makes sense. Domes appearing above the rooftops. Patterns repeating on every surface. Gold catching the light through the haze.

This painting is my attempt to put that feeling onto canvas. The smoky background is that atmosphere, that beautiful, overwhelming busyness. And then the domes build up on top of it, layer after layer, the way the architecture of that part of Cairo just accumulates around you as you walk. Familiar shapes, but abstracted. Felt rather than seen.

I did not want to paint Cairo as it looks. I wanted to paint what it felt like.