Morning in Mumbai

We arrived at the airport in Mumbai around 10:00 PM on September 10, 2009. A car from the Hotel Harbour View was waiting to take us to the hotel just down the street from the Taj Hotel and the Gateway of India. After checking in, we headed to the rooftop bar and restaurant. This was my third time in India, and coming back to this rooftop is always like coming home.

Below is the view of the Gateway of India at dawn, from our breakfast table. Monsoon season filled the warm air with a heavy moisture.

Below is a photo of a drawing I did that first morning, with Pepto Bismol tablets lying on the lefthand page. Some days later, I was to loose this sketchbook/journal and all of my resource drawings and written impressions from the first week of this seven week trip. It was a sickening disappointment to me at the time. Eight weeks later, at home looking through photos, I was happy to find three photos I'd taken of my book that morning in Mumbai.

I'd bought the Moleskin book the day before we left America. It had extra thick blank pages, 100 to be exact, that I thought would be good for watercolor, but when I tried a petite sketch of the harbor at dawn, the paper resisted the water and you can see the paint beaded up. I used this book only for drawing from then on, and stashed small pieces of watercolor paper into the back pocket in the book, so was ready for a quick painting if and when I wanted one. I did do one, and lost it when I lost the book.