David Bellamy’s Arabian Light- Book Review

Time for another book review and it’s David Bellamy’s second travelogue book. I read and reviewed Arctic Light a while back and so much of what I said about that book is equally true about this one. So a lot of this review will sound very similar to that one. This one is another 176 page hardback with thick, glossy pages. For about 160 pages, it’s an artistic travelogue, the rest of it being some tips on plein air watercolour painting in hot conditions.

So, first up, the travelogue.  This part of the book is divided up into six chapters, each based around a geographical area.  As well as Saudi Arabia, this includes Lebanon, Jordan, Oman, Egypt, the Sahara and the East coast of Africa, down as far as Kenya. All the expeditions are described in lots of detail, all mishaps and problems included.  And the scenery is well described and illustrated by some fantastic paintings. Just as with the Arctic book, there’s a lot of granulation going on in the paintings; based on David’s most recent book, I think a lot of this is down to his use of Mars black, although French ultramarine gets a special mention later on as a colour to pack plenty of. David’s poetic language brings the landscape to life and (a lot of the time but not always) makes me want to paint.  Just like with any book like this you find yourself going backwards and forwards between the main body of text, the text attached to the paintings and the paintings themselves.

The chapter on extreme plein air painting didn’t teach me anything useful, to be honest as that’s not my sort of thing.  But it still worked for me as an extension of the rest of the book, adding more details to David’s journey and the problems he faces just painting.

One big difference between this book and Arctic Light, was that Arctic Light was much more focused on the natural landscape; in this book, the people and the architecture get much more attention. David seems to love the people in this region more than the scenery. Maybe that’s why I didn’t enjoy this book as much as the one on the Arctic. I was more interested in seeing paintings of the desert and the mountains than in paintings of markets and ancient temples. I appreciate that’s just me but I also wasn’t as enamoured about the text in this one. I wasn’t that interested in all the ancient history of the region and was positively bored by the biographies of other artists who have painted the region and by David’s life as an army engineer in Aden. And don’t get me started on David’s completely unnecessary descent into politics at the end of the book.

The final score?  Well, as you probably already know, I limit scores for books that are all inspiration and no learnings to three palettes.  And I don’t regret putting this book on my wishlist, so it gets at least two palettes. Whether it gets two or three cones down to whether I’d buy it again if my studio burnt down. And you know what? I’m not sure I would. The book just didn’t make me fall in love with the region. When I think back to how I felt reading Arctic Light, it seems pretty clear to me that reading this book was nowhere near as interesting or inspiring. With apologies to David and to the guy that bought meeting book for my birthday, I’m going with two palettes. On the other hand, if you’re the sort of person that likes travelling the Middle East and that thinks that the locals are part of the charm, the. You should buy this book like a shot.

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