Anadolu Mavisi : Anatolian Blue

Blue eyes for the blue sea of Türkiye.

I painted Atatürk’s Eyes No: 07 to commemorate the 100 year anniversary of the founding of the Turkish Republic by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. A previous Eyes image has been used for the front cover of a book titled ‘Anadolu Mavisi’ by Gökhan Karakaş and Ali Bozoğlu:

I first met Gökhan Karakaş on board Turkish battleship TCG Gediz as seen below.

That original painting, Atatürk’s Eyes No: 06 1m x 3m, was taken on board TCG Gediz in 2015 to commemorate the 125th anniversary of the final Ertuğrul voyage via Port Said, Jeddah, Aden, Bombay (Mumbai), Colombo, Singapore, Saigon, Hong Kong, Fuzhou, Nagaski and Kushimoto. I joined the crew for the trip from Kushimoto to Tokyo. I understand Türkiye and Japan have maintained a friendship ever since that tragic sinking of the frigate Ertuğrul off the coast of Japan.