{"id":14973,"date":"2025-08-07T17:43:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T21:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/clay-wood.com\/?p=14973"},"modified":"2026-02-11T13:54:27","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T18:54:27","slug":"sketching-in-bulgaria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clay-wood.com\/?p=14973","title":{"rendered":"Sketching in Bulgaria"},"content":{"rendered":"
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1.In mountains above Kleptuza<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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2. Anna before flight<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the late spring of this year, May, my wife Anna and I left for Bulgaria, her home country and returned to our home in Indiana about three weeks later. While in Bulgaria, I challenged myself to fill three sketchbooks; a pocket sketchbook, a small sketchbook that fit into my drawing tool pouch and a 9\u00d712 inch book. This was almost accomplished. Half of the large book was left unfilled. This post offers a selection of the results as well as thoughts about sketching in general.<\/p>\n

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3. Mustard (at the airport)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I sketch because it allows me to better experience, see and be present with those few moments with the sketch. With the sketchbook I am allowed something of a meditation on place. In this sense sketching is the work of recreation. Sketching, as is the function of language, lends weight to relationships to a larger world. It also allows connections to appear, otherwise lost in a recycling world of everyday weeks and days. Having to focus on a perspective for maybe 5 minutes (my quickest sketches) to three hours I am, by default, in the position to seek out the chain of connection that makes a place worthy of attention and care.
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\n<\/a>En plein air<\/em> sketches, in this same sense, are most interesting as a conversation between pencil line and the perspective before us. That conversation is revealed by the unraveling and sorting out of the edges observed as well as the unseen edges that mark the frontier of our language and world. Drawings emerge as they do, then, out of forces that have nothing to do with what is seen but, instead, with what is understood to have significance. As a sketch offers a presence and immanence of the moment it also offers a sense of significance satisfied by the dialog between the drawing itself, people around me,\u00a0 constructed histories, myths of many kinds and needling into relatively foreign worlds such as the world of pine trees and mountains.<\/p>\n

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4. Thracian ruins above Kleptuza. The ruins have been described to be a house, an outpost and a temple.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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5. Chapino center<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My best sketches evidence an openness to the world amid the process of sketching. Such a sketch lets me see what I have often passed by. There is something about the atmosphere while being-in-the sketch and experiencing the place that brings evidence of broader connections. In such a sketch I might find how a particular tree is related to its fellow tree, sky and perhaps house roof; lines of connection that were foreign are articulated with the point of a pencil. Still, there will be, most certainly, worlds that are foreign to me within the perspective but remain unseen and un-sketched.<\/p>\n

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6. Train tower at Bansko.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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7. Fork & plate<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I remember what it was like experiencing the world before and after I was educated to be an architect as well as before and after I learned something about the life of trees. An educated architect will, for example, look for reciprocal relationships: light \u2013 passage, story, ritual, rain \u2013 slope of roof, garden, tree etc. Such understandings are likely to resolve in a more interesting and aware drawing. While we can observe the geometries in a perspective and we may be able to mimic it in the drawing we will not be able to care about a perspective, give it our due attention, unless we are better aware of the patterns and histories illuminating the place we are drawing. Drawing without caring, in other words, is likely to result in a \u2018dumb\u2019 drawing of even if the lines are nicely drawn and the shadows are deftly rendered.<\/span>1<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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8. On top of the Perperikon acropolis from the Byzantine era tower.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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9. Perperikon. The so-called Throne Room. Perperikon is known for Dionysian rituals involving fire.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Unfamiliar places push us to be better open to the world and to seek out connections often lost but present in our mundane home environments. There is also something about the pleasure of novelty that gives us permission to sit on a bench or log for an hour or so to really see what is before us. The desire to untangle the \u201cthe lay of the land\u201d seems to be a natural attitude in a foreign place. Most of us do indeed seek the novelty of the foreign and in such places we likewise seek to untangle its genus loci.<\/em> Thus, the ancient traditions of the guided tour and souvenirs.<\/p>\n

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10. View outside the kitchen, Chapino<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In Bulgaria were spare moments that allowed me to sketch and reacquaint myself with beloved landscapes and some time to get to know new places. Most of our time was spent in Anna\u2019s hometown of Velingrad but we made it a point to visit some defining Bulgarian sites that have been neglected over my four previous visits. These places included two significant ancient Thracian sites; Perperikon and Tatul as well as the historically important Batak and Bansko, Bulgaria. Both Perperikon and Tatul are sacred architecture devoted to Dionysus and Orpheus. Orpheus is said to have been born in Thrace (the ancient name covered largely by modern Bulgaria). The birthplace of Dionysus and his cult is a little more ambiguous but still if we take the word of Herodotus seriously, Dionysus \u201cdanced from Thrace\u201d to Greece. Still, given the attention given to Trifon Zarezan in Bulgaria, an Orthodox saint associated with grapes and wine making that in many respects recalls Dionysus; the ancient god still has a home in Bulgaria.<\/p>\n

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11. At the poetry reading<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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12. At the poetry reading<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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13. Book fair, Sofia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Most of the images sketched were of places in Velingrad\u2019s mountain paths and townscapes because in Velingrad I had the time to draw. But, I did have a few moments to sketch during the relatively whirlwind visits to ancient ruins along the eastern Rhodope mountains of Perperikon. A few sketches also came out of our visits to Bansko, Batak and Sofia. Velingrad, a truly beautiful town, lies on the north side of the Rhodope mountains within the roughly north-south oriented Chapino valley. The present town is composed of three municipalities, Chepino (\u0427\u0435\u043f\u0438\u043d\u043e), Ladzene (\u041b\u044a\u0434\u0436\u0435\u043d\u0435), and Kamenitsa (\u041a\u0430\u043c\u0435\u043d\u0438\u0446\u0430). All three merged into Velingrad in 1948. The name, Velingrad, commemorates a young partisan, Vella Peeva, who hid in the mountains, was found and “martyred” by police loyal to the then axis aligned government. Her portrait is sculpted in the heroic style of communist era. Her sculpted, bespectacled eyes look in the direction of a newly constructed 22 meter high \u2018tinker-toy\u2019 Christian cross with obvious concern.<\/p>\n

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16. Outdoor sink<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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14. Velingrad<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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15. Village dog<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When the Chepino Valley was part of the Ottoman Empire it was largely the home of Pomaks. Pomaks are Bulgarians, originally christians (both orthodox and an Armenian Christian sect (Paulicians) who converted to Islam as early as the 15th century.<\/span>2<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

The region remained largely Muslim until the late 19th century when, at that time, there was significant displacement from southwest Bulgaria or Pirin Macedonia (at that time still under the Ottoman Empire until 1912). Much of Velingrad and Anna\u2019s family comes from this area. In this region are the Pirin mountains and a town called Bansko. At present, Bansko is the home of a popular jazz festival and skiing resort town as well as being a destination for enthusiastic mountaineers and hunters. Bansko, however, has an important place in Bulgarian history as the birthplace of a principal founder of the Bulgarian Revival, the foundations of Bulgarian secular education and here an influential icon painting school was established. The revival of Bulgarian arts in this town were likely able to flourish because of its relative isolation. On the other hand, with a little effort, people living in Bansko could find well traveled roads to the great cities of the time. The Tsarigrad Road lying about 65 km to the northeast went between Serbia and Istanbul and followed the path of the Roman\u2019s ancient Via Militaris<\/em>. Other passages followed the parallel north-south Sturma and Mesta (Nestos, Greek) river valleys to Solun (Thessaloniki). Such a naturally fortified place would have offered some hesitation to tax collectors sent by the local Ottoman beylerbeys.<\/p>\n

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17. Light pole<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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18. In the mountains<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Paisius Hilendarski (1722-1773), sat to write the Istoriya Slavyanobolgarskaya, this key document establishing the Bulgarian Revival at Mount Athos\u2019 Hilandar and Zograph monasteries. Toma Vishanov, the painter who establish Bansko\u2019s icon school left to be educated in Vienna, became known a Moler, from the German word maler (painter) and apparently returned and stayed in Bansko. Neofit Rilski (1793-1881) the polymath who is created Bulgaria\u2019s first secular school spent his carrier principally in the near-by Rila Monastery. In sum, Bansko was a focus for a Bulgarian enlightenment as well as a place that urged Bulgarian autonomy amid Ottoman suppression. The region around Bansko offered refuge and support to a number of uprisings that presaged the Balkan Wars and sought the unification of the orphaned region now called North Macedonia.<\/span>3<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Many families that now live in Velingrad fled east to the towns in Chepino Valley. This is how most of my wife\u2019s family arrived in the region as well as a number of their friends. There are dramatic stories involving her family enduring and participating in the battles of the Balkan Wars and the WWI.<\/p>\n

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19. In the mountains, quick sketch<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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20. Front bus window<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A note on drawing materials: About 25 years ago when I found the then called Negro Kon-I-Noor, I gave up using lead pencils to sketch with. Cretacolor Nero pencils replaced the Negro pencils but seem little different. According to a number of sources the Nero and Negro pencils are made with charcoal rather than graphite.The manufacturer uses wax and or an oil as a binder-medium, despite this the lines erase rather cleanly.<\/p>\n

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21. Last sketch in Sofia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The pencil, in contrast to a traditional graphite and clay pencil, gives a very black non reflective line. I am using the Japanese brush pens more often as they replicate the process I use to decorate pottery with a brush. I have used the Mangak and Pigma brush pens both I\u2019ve used Razor Point pens since my days as an architectural designer. They offer almost as much flexibility as a soft pencil in terms of line sensitivity and because they are water soluble allowing lines to be washed with a slight bit of water for a tone or to be nearly erased. I constantly carried the pocket sketchbook with a Razor Point pen and sketched whenever I had time waiting for one reason or another. The other sketch books, used at places where I intended to \u2018see\u2019 use of the other sketchbooks, were more intentional.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the late spring of this year, May, my wife Anna and I left for Bulgaria, her home country and returned to our home in Indiana about three weeks later. While in Bulgaria, I challenged myself to fill three sketchbooks; a pocket sketchbook, a small sketchbook that fit into my…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14740,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[66,68,16,212],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-craft-and-society","category-craft-methodology","category-gallery-post","category-sketching"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/clay-wood.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Bul-13May-20250611_14jn149p-e1750091892744.jpg?fit=2228%2C1502&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paTshs-3Tv","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clay-wood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clay-wood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clay-wood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clay-wood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clay-wood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14973"}],"version-history":[{"count":36,"href":"https:\/\/clay-wood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14973\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15169,"href":"https:\/\/clay-wood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14973\/revisions\/15169"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clay-wood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clay-wood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clay-wood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clay-wood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}