A West African Journal

A journal of experiences in West Africa by Mary Baskerville Sheets, drawings by Millard Sheets. 110 pages, 56 images, softcover, $150.00  Our travels have taken us to many remote and fascinating lands and there are many more that we have yet to explore, but West Africa had not been high on our priority list. That all changed suddenly, however, when our friend Eleanor Dammann returned last spring from a tour called “African Art in Context,” arranged by Guilliver’s Travels of San Francisco. Eleanor is a brilliant, perceptive, exuberant person and her vivid descriptions of her experiences, her fabulous color slides and the stunning artifacts and fabrics she brought back opened to us a whole new world of challenging excitement. Millard was overwhelmed by the incredible beauty of the Africans, the infinite variety and richness of their garments, the excitement and the dazzling color of the teeming markets, the stunning architecture of the sculptured mosques, and the simple elegance of the mud villages. He knew that he could get wonderful material for his painting, unlike any thing he had found on other travels. He has always worked with watercolor as his medium when travelling as it is the most practical to manage, and he was fired with excitement at the vision of the watercolors, and the drawings he could do from which paintings could be developed for his next New York show. California Watercolor – California Art Books