Back in 2014 I was still deep and in rehabilitation after my stroke. Not able to travel, I took to exploring some of my favourite places online, gazing at maps and mining my memory for details.
I came slowly to realise that I was probably more in love with the maps than the actual places. It is a fascination that probably dates back to my school days.
As a teenager studying Geology and Geography, my interest jockied between the lines and dots of the roads and towns on location maps to the jagged pockets of vibrant colour seen in topographic and geological maps.
The Image above was my first attempt to paint one. It is a rough outline of the Paris arrondissements. I saw in their pattern the petals of a flower, so I coloured them randomly to see what my own Parisian Rose might look like. It is a habit I have repeated many times over the years and in many different places.
My obsession with maps is never-ending. Citywise, I moved on after Paris to Berlin, Beijing and London. The styles changed, too.
And the locations often less exotic than Paris, but to me no less beautiful.
BillyScraps 