“All mountain landscapes hold stories: the ones we read, the ones we dream, and the ones we create.”

– Michael Kennedy

Somewhere in the midst of walking 220 miles across Turkey, November’s travel sketch got lost.

Considering how many times I did the same, it is rather fitting, isn’t it? But still – before we get any further into December, it’s time to set ourselves back on course.

To make up for my negligence, I’m sharing a rather special sketch with you today. Out of all the sketches I did on the Evliya Çelebi Way, it’s one of my favorites.

As you might remember reading about, I had spent this particular day – my second to last day on the trail – hopelessly lost on a mountain. For hours, I followed forest roads lined with pine trees, towering behemoths that blocked my view in every direction and permitted no vista over the valleys below. The sense of the forest closing in on me would have been strange to sustain on any day, but the fact that I had no earthly clue where I was – or where I would end up that night – only compounded my frustration.

But then I came to a small stretch of road where the forest did in fact give way on my left, and I could see out for what felt like a thousand miles. The long-awaited openness, like curtains finally parting before a stage, took my breath away.

The hills were equally arresting. I couldn’t stop staring at them, shielding my eyes from the sun as I tried to burn their image to my memory forever, and the way they faded into a clear blue nothingness. When I think about it now, they offered me a bit of their clarity on a day when I felt anything but.

For two hours that afternoon, I sat on the side of the mountain and sketched the scene – if only because my camera was unable to capture both the pine-laden foreground and the hazy, layered background in the same exposure. Not long after I returned to the trail, the forest closed in on me again, but it was the memory of those translucent hills that got me through.

Hills that seemed to lead straight into eternity.

Mountains in Turkey

Mountains in Turkey

Turkey travel sketch

The above travel sketch was uploaded at 2,500 pixels wide, so feel free to download it and give your desktop a new look for the holidays!

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16 Comments

  • Dear Candace. Lovely description of your experience. Short, crisp and exciting. I would love to get lost and discover something I would never have otherwise seen. Making a painting on a mountain top in the middle of nowhere… wow !!

    G

    • Thanks so much for reading and saying hello, Gaurav. As much as I loathe being lost, it’s hard to hate it too much because it always results in something…be it a story or a sketch 🙂 Here’s to getting lost a little more in 2014!

    • It definitely was, Elora! I loved all my afternoon sketching sessions on the trek – it was great to keep walking for the rest of the day, knowing I’d made time to sketch 🙂 So glad you enjoyed it!

  • I KNEW something great must have come out of that day! I felt your frustration and anger as I read through your description of your experience, but in the back of my mind, I had no doubt you will find a silver lining! YAY! Beautiful sketch, btw!

    • You are so lovely, Pauline! Despite the incredible frustration of that day, it was definitely filled with silver linings – from this sketching session to a couple of other epiphanies I’ll be writing about here very soon! It’s funny how the worst moments of a journey are almost always when our best lessons are learned, isn’t it? I can’t tell you how much I look forward to meeting you one day, when we’ll finally get a chance to chat and swap our pilgrim tales 🙂

  • I think this is one of my favourites of all your sketches, Candace. The scene is utterly mesmerising, and I can feel the serenity of the misty mountains hanging in each stoke of your brush. Thank goodness for getting lost!

    • Wow, that means a heck of a lot coming from you, Hannah – thank you! Especially as you’ve really seen my sketching evolve over the last year or so 🙂 And yes, it was indeed hard to be too angry about getting lost on this day…as frustrating as it was at times, it was also such a conduit for inspiration! xx

  • Getting lost is always one of those funny things, you are always nervous, upset, or frustrated about it when it happens, but often it ends up being one of the most memorable moments of any journey. Really glad you were able to make the most of it! Beautiful sketch.

    • You pretty much just summed up the beauty of getting lost perfectly, Anwar 🙂 And thanks for your kind words about the sketch! It was definitely one of my favorites from the trek.

  • This sketch reminds me of home – the miles and miles of rolling green hills. Although it stinks to be lost in the middle of them, they are comforting, quiet and serene.

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