The Mosque Of Wadi Mektoub

A father and his daughter have pitched their tent overnight by the mosque of Wadi Mektoub, a famous shrine deep in the desert. Their boat is moored in the tranquil river with their rowing boat pulled up on the riverbank, a fire burns in front of the tent for the daughter to cook some food as well as to ward off the chill of a desert night. Perhaps they are on a pilgrimage to the shrine, perhaps they are just passing through.
Due to the good response to "Departure Of The Bash Kadin" and due to it selling so early I felt that it would make sense to paint a similar one as I felt that "Bash Kadin" could have sold to another collector at the upcoming Illuxcon where this painting is heading.
These Orientalist paintings are very much fantasies in that I paint them as a Middle Eastern scene would be depicted in a Hollywood movie like Indiana Jones for example i.e. impossible juxtapositions of Middle Eastern elements that somehow relate to Western peoples' fantasy of Arabian Nights-style scenes and situations. I also give them cod-Orientalist titles as a nod to the original inspiration of Victorian era paintings by Gérome etc etc. A big influence on this picture is the work of Albert Goodwin. Wadi Mektoub does not exist; a wadi (in the Maghreb for instance) is a river and Mektoub is Arabic for happy happenstance like the Turkish word, Kismet.
Oil on canvas 19 3/4" x 19 3/4". A step-by-step progress through this painting can be found in previous posts on this blog.