India Summer ’22: Fontainhas

The Fontainhas (and Sao Tome, my next post) neighborhoods of Panjim are a narrow-laned maze with beautiful houses. I sketched in these neighborhoods on two mornings with Darpana from USk Goa. Meeting up with urban sketchers on my trip was one of the highlights of my time there.

This is St. Sebastian’s chapel. History is all around you in India, and a chapel from the 1800s is just another living chapel at the end of a street. As I sat there, the priest in his cassock walked by (you can see him in front of the door) and two ladies selling fish and a streetsweeper past through.

I did a quick little sketch as this fishseller walked by. Bright sari, fish basket on head, she sells fish door to door. You haggle over a price and buy your portion, then she sits by your front door and preps the fish for you: Fish is descaled, deboned and cut up to your requirements. She’ll clean up shrimp too. But don’t let her take away the heads and shells: my mom says it isn’t an authentic shrimp curry if you don’t use broth made from those bits.

Food punctuates sketching, always. Here’s a picture of a cat. And also, Chanya Tonak and pao. And endless little cups of tea before our next sketch.

Of course, I had to sketch this guy reading the newspaper while we ate. Darpana took a video of a part of the process, and you can see it on my Instagram feed.

We moved on to a lovely spot on a quiet and clean street, and settled down to this sketch . The wooden window frames on this house don’t hold glass panes: that’s mother-of-pearl from abalone shells inlaid between the slats. It lets in a softened version of the harsh sun, keeping the inside of the home cool. The tiles are azuejos and the profusion of houseplants is something you see everywhere in Goa.

Someone on the top storey of that house took a photo of us sitting in the street. Isn’t it a gorgeous location?

And here is one more piece that celebrates Goa’s love for gardens and houseplants. One of the rare times I used my neocolor crayons, which literally melted in the heat.

This is post #3 in a series of posts of sketches from India. Missed the first two posts? They’re here:

Post #1: Back After a Three year Break

Post #2: Panjim Market