Siberian ibex, Ikh Nartiin Chuluu- Annigoni toned paper, Sakura Micron pen and white gouache
During my week-long solo exhibition at the National Museum of Mongolia in August, I was there every afternoon except one. While there was a constant stream of people, over 100 each afternoon (I kept a tally), I was still “stuck” sitting there. So I took my MacBook Air, which is my primary image storage when I’m traveling, a sketchbook, a Sakura Micron pen and some pencils and, working from some of the photos, sketched and drew when I wasn’t chatting with visitors. It also gave them a chance to see an artist at work and many were quite interested.
So here’s a selection from that week, some of which, like the one of the baby marmots below, are intended as preliminary explorations for future paintings. Some are from previous trips, but the images haven’t yet been deleted from iPhoto.
Baby Siberian marmots, Hustai National Park, 2013Siberian ibex and lesser kestrels, Ikh Nartiin Chuluu, 2012Takhi, Hustai National Park, 2013Argali ram, Ikh Nartiin Chuluu Nature Reserve,2010- graphiteOx and Mongol horse, Jalman Meadows, Han Hentii Mountains, 2012- graphite
Expedition members and staff, from left to right: Oidoviin Magvandorj (Mongol artist), Sendag (driver), Odna (Mongol photographer), Tugsoyun Sodnom (Mongol artist), Susan Fox (American artist), Batmaa (driver), Tseegii (guide), Sharon K. Schafer (American artist); photo by Soyoloo our great cook
Two years of planning all came together on August 23, 2013 when the first WildArt Mongolia Expedition departed from Ulaanbaatar in two Russian fergon vans, heading south and then west for a nineteen day adventure that combined art, endangered wildlife, Mongol culture and spectacular scenery.
We began in this:
View looking south to Bogd Khan Uul from my 12th floor room at the Bayangol Hotel
And within a few hours, found ourselves traveling through this:
Heading south into the steppe-Gobi transition zoneJust one of those things you encounter on the road in Mongolia, local livestock
I had in mind a very special place for our first camp…But first we needed to fill our water barrel from a local well. We also got lots of great horse photos.
Getting water with assistance from local herders and a generator
Then it was on to our campsite…near my favorite sacred mountain, Zorgul Hairhan Uul.
Zorgol Hairhan Uul
Once camp was set up, we relaxed and had afternoon tea in the maikhan (Mongol summer tent).
Chatting in the maikhan; from left to right: Guide Tseegii, artist Tugsoyun, artist Magvandorj, artist Sharon Schafer, photographer Odna
The next morning we were up in time to catch the first light on the mountain.
First Light
Magvandorj set up his easel and went to work.
Magvandorj painting on location
There was a small lake at the foot of the mountain, which we explored that morning.
Morning light on the small lake
Odna, Sharon and I took lots of photos.
Odna and Sharon
There was a white stupa at the base of the mountain.
The white stupa backed by a great rock formation
And a sacred spring on the backside, set about with prayer wheels and trees festooned with colorful khadag (offering scarves).
Khadag and prayer wheels
This is what our camps looked like during the Expedition.
The view from camp looking away from the mountain
By late morning we were packed up and on our way to our next stop, Arburd Sands ger camp and a very special event.
My eighth trip to Mongolia this year was the busiest ever. Not only did I have the WildArt Mongolia Expedition, but also the solo exhibition of my paintings at the National Museum of Mongolia. Before, after and in and around those was my yearly trip to Ikh Nart to meet with the women’s felt craft collective and visit the reserve, a quick weekend trip to Hustai, lunches and dinners with friends and, to top it off, gaining gallery representation at Mazaalai Art Gallery in Ulaanbaatar.
So not only do I have the WildArt Mongolia Expedition group exhibition next June or July to prepare for, but also the juried shows that I enter and creating new work for my gallery. All to say that after today, I will be doing one main post a week, not two, with the intention of posting every Wednesday. In between I’ll be doing shorter informal posts as interesting things come up.
I finally got back into the studio today after resting and catching up last week. Jet lag wasn’t bad, but I was tired, not surprisingly, since I’ve been going non-stop since June. Physically, I’m fine. Three plus weeks of remote travel on the earth roads of south-western Mongolia didn’t bother me at all. What seems to wear me down by the end of a trip is what I’ve come to think of as “decision fatigue”. Staying in Ulaanbaatar and traveling the way that I do in Mongolia is, in some ways, one long stretch of decisions,particularly since I’m often working and traveling with people from a different culture -the Mongols- and trying to function appropriately and correctly within that culture as much as possible. I reach a point where I need to park my brain in neutral for awhile. The prospect of 10-11 hours on a plane coming home becomes quite appealing. The only decision is which entree to have for dinner. Otherwise, I can mentally just flake out. Getting back into the home routine is nice, too, since the decision requirements are minimal.
My first task when I get home (besides unpacking and laundry), because I can’t really start to relax until I do, is to download all my photos (over 8300 this time) into Aperture on a local vault (Apple-speak for an external hard drive) and then back them up to a separate hard drive (a remote vault) that is kept in a different building, our detached garage. After that they need to be categorized, which usually takes a couple of days. Then I can really see what I’ve got.
And what I’ve got that I honestly didn’t expect to get was useable, paintable reference of the critically endangered Mongolian saiga antelope. They are all from quite a distance (see photo at top) and I will need to do research and call on the people I met in Darvi soum who protect them to help ensure that what I’m doing is accurate, but I got some great action shots of both males and females and some closer-in standing shots. I’ve done three pages of first studies to get a feel for what a saiga looks like. They are done on Strathmore vellum bristol with a Wolff’s 4B carbon pencil.
I’m in Ulaanbaatar for a couple more days, then heading for home. The Expedition departed on August 23 and returned on September 10. It was a great adventure that occasionally verged on the epic, was filled with days of great natural beauty,took us to places no artists have ever been and accomplished every goal that I set.
Nomadic Journeys sent us out with a great team who were reliable, professional and fun to be with. It quickly became their Expedition, too. So, really, it was all nine of us together sharing wonderful sights and experiences.
From left to right above: Oidoviin Magvandorj (Mongol artist), Sendag (driver), Odna Idevkhen (Mongol photographer), Tugsoyun Sodnom (Mongol artist), Susan Fox (Expedition organizer and American artist), Batmaa (driver), Tseegii (guide), Sharon K. Schafer (American artist). Photo taken by our cook Soyoloo, who is pictured below at Darvi Nuur.
The two horses at the top are Magvandorj showing me the difference between Mongol horses (left) and western horses (right). You can see how we were working on terms for things in both languages also.
On August 14, Oidviin Magvandorj, one of the artists who will be going on the WildArt Mongolia Expedition, came to the National Museum to sit with me in the afternoon while my exhibition was open.
He has a little English and I have a little Mongolian, but as artists we easily kept a running conversation going for almost four hours. I had my MacBook Air with me which has a lot of photos from my past two trips still on it. They were the springboard for these 6×4″ notebook pages, which I decided were too interesting and charning not to share.
Magvandorj was looking at some of my ibex photos from last year when he did the little compositional sketches. The lower left sketch is an example of the type of stylized representations that one sees in ancient Mongolian rock pictographs. He had also asked me about the camera equipment that I use. “neg” is Mongolian for “one”.I had showed him the main reference photo for “Zuniin Odor (Summer Day)” and that led to an illustrated tutorial of the terms for some of the parts of Mongol horse tack, something I’ve been wanting to learn more about.
It’s a blessedly cool morning in UB. Coming from the north coast of California, heat and humidity for days at a time wears me down a bit. Thunderstorms predicted today. Rained yesterday, which settled the worst of the dust. This is a dusty city and I was definitely having a reaction to it. But I know to bring my neti pot to Mongolia and it did the job.
Sunday mornings are very nice here. So quiet. No traffic to speak of until after 11am. Very little construction noise at the moment either. (Oops, 7am and they just started up. The building season is very short here, so it’s a seven days a week until dark necessity). There are buildings going up on the both the east and west sides of my building. The apartment extends the width so there is an enclosed bump out balcony on the east side and a window on the west side. Good for a cross breeze.
The bedroom
For the first time I feel like I’m, in a way, living in UB rather than staying here. I like being in a neighborhood with a little mini-market close by instead of isolated up in a hotel. And I’m close to everything I need to get to. It’s one of the old socialist era buildings, probably built in the 1960s. Thick walls, nine foot ceilings, have to drink bottled water due to old pipes and arsenic/uranium/other minerals in the city water supply. No hot water for the last five days, but I’m managing, just like everyone else has to. The electric tea kettle does the job. It’s in the original core district which is called the 40,000 for the number of housing units and is a desirable place to be.
The kitchen
The apartment has an entry hall, one bedroom, one bath, a small kitchen and a large living room. I was told that one like this sells for $90,000 these days. Probably could have bought it for less than $10,000 in 2005. Not sure who owns the various older apartment buildings, maybe the city, maybe individuals, but one can own the apartments and live in them or rent them out. Some people buy two and knock them together. This one is being rented by the Denver Zoo, which uses it for the scientists working at Ikh Nart. I was given access to it also, which I greatly appreciate!
More coming up soon on my exhibition at the National Museum of Mongolia!
Red Rock Ger Camp, Ikh Nartiin Chuluu Nature Reserve
I’ve been in Mongolia for eleven days and and they have been jam-packed with things to do.
The top priority has been the preparations for my exhibition at the National Museum of Mongolia. I brought 32 paintings with me. Fifteen of them were in an Archival Methods transport case. Which didn’t show up on the baggage carousel at Chinggis Khan International Airport. It turned out that it had been held for inspection in San Francisco by the TSA and didn’t make it onto my SFO to Incheon flight. So much for requiring that all luggage be on the same flight as the passenger. It arrived the following evening and the great staff of Korean Air brought it to the apartment where I’m staying. Definitely some anxious moments.
The next couple of days were filled with getting a sim card for my phone, checking in at the Nomadic Journeys office and getting my paintings to the frame company. Nice frames for all the paintings came to $500. The museum is also printing large and small posters and invitations for the opening ceremony, which will be this Friday from 4-6pm.
With members of Ikh Nart Is Our FutureFelt items made by the collective this year
On Wednesday, I boarded a train to Dalanjargalan, where the felt-craft collective that I help support, Ikh Nart Is Our Future, is based. I stayed at a private home and spent a lovely day with some of the members of the collective. Our meeting was very productive with new ideas like making del (the traditional Mongol garment) for visitors to the ger camp. In the evening there was another meeting with the soum (county) governor, Oyuntsetseg, who I met at the first meetings to help set up the collective in 2009. Back then she was the Vice Governor of the Soum. It was really nice to see her again.
Oyuntsetseg, Governor of Dalanjargalan Soum
Then it was off to Red Rock ger camp at Ikh Nartiin Chuluu Nature Reserve. I saw a number of people I know from past trips, got to eat some of the summer white food (dairy products like airag, orum and yogurt) and see a variety of wildlife like argali, ibex, cinereous vultures, tolai hare, pikas, lizards and other birds.
Argali ramSiberian ibex
I got back late yesterday afternoon. Today will be a meeting at the museum to finalize plans for the exhibition and then another meeting about the WildArt Mongolia Expedition. Updates when available.
Done for the Day oil 17×30″- one of the paintings in my upcoming exhibition
I am proud to announce that “My Mongolia: The Paintings of American Artist Susan Fox” will be hosted by the National Museum of Mongolia from August 9-16. The opening ceremony will be on Friday the 9th from 4-6pm.
The exhibition has literally been a year in the making since the seeds of it were planted when I in Mongolia last year.
I will be showing at least one painting from each of my seven trips, over two dozen in all. The subjects range from argali to Mongol horses to herders, horse trainers and Gobi landscapes. All are original oils created from my experiences, memories and the thousands of reference photos I’ve taken over the years. A number of the pieces have been juried into various national shows, sometimes more than one.
If you live in, or will be in, Ulaanbaatar I hope that you will come by and share a little of my Mongolia.
Procession into the Naadam Stadium with the official State horsetail standards
Serious preparation and packing for my next trip to Mongolia has officially begun. I’ll be doing my pre-trip gear review Very Soon Now.
In the meantime, coming up this weekend is one of the biggest holidays in Mongolia, the annual Naadam. I got to attend it in 2009 and hope to again sometime, maybe next year. It’s when the very best competitors, both horse and human, are featured in The Three Manly Sports- horse racing, wrestling and archery. Ulaanbaatar pretty much closes down on Friday afternoon. Some head to the countryside to get away from the crowds and craziness, but thousands join in the celebration.
Susan Fox, American Artist 