My first book!!! 

This gorgeous little book was published last week and is the culmination of 6 month's work since my 10 day visit to Hoi An in December 2012.  It was made possible by the support of my wonderful friends who have listened, checked, criticized, praised and questioned all my efforts. They rescued me when people and events conspired against me, encouraged me, covered for me, fixed things, dug me out of holes. They celebrate with me and never hold me back.  

Thank you all.

Thank you, also, to new friends and associates in Saigon who have supported this project in so many ways, from start to finish. Your advice, prodding, promotion, pushing and encouragement have helped me feel at home.  

And, a special thank you to Jo and Mai for giving me so many amazing opportunities; for putting up with me, putting a roof over my head and helping me to find my way in this exotic, exciting, enigmatic land. FG.

A Week in Hoi An is an interactive artist’s guide to the World Heritage Town which casts a spell on all who visit with its ancient streets, colourful shops, the temples, cafes and the bustling market. Surrounding it is a verdant landscape of rice paddies and morning glory beds where people still work the fields with oxen and the buzz of dragonflies is all around.

Running through is the river that once made Hoi An one of the busiest trading posts on the East Sea. Only 3 km away is the most beautiful beach in all Vietnam , running like a silver strand all the way up to Da Nang and beyond.

This book is a collection of pages taken directly from my Moleskine sketch book, further paintings, drawings and  notes about some of the history and local culture. In all there are 60 colour illustrations recording my visit. 

Also, inside this First Edition, there are three special postcards to send, or maybe just to frame. Use this book as your guide, make notes about your own experiences as you go or just enjoy the reading.  It will make you smile.

Get your own copy from Amazon from July 17th or by contacting me at bridgetmarch.com

Look out Saigon; I'm back!

Notre Dame Cathedral, Saigon

This week has been one of those landmark weeks when a number of projects have 'matured' , come together, taken flight or been completed

My little book about Hoi An has been taking all of my time and energy for the past two months but we are nearly there now. The ISBN number arrived from London a week ago, the government license from Hanoi arrived yesterday so my wonderful Bulgarian designer, Ani, and I are filled with anticipation. She will see the first proof on Tuesday and will hopefully decide it is good enough to go ahead and print the first 500.

Last week we held Saigon's first Art Market at the VinGallery in District 2. We had twelve artists and designer-makers and over a hundred people came to look, buy and watch demonstrations and enjoy childrens' activities. I designed a banner to head up all our communications and Shyevin, the gallery owner, blew it up to make a 2mtr wide banner for the entrance on opening day. She even managed to find some bunting to match the bunting in my drawing! It looked fabulous!

The event was very good for the gallery that is working hard to raise its profile and very good for yours truly who sold lots of mini watercolours and some limited edition prints of work I did in Hoi An.

In Vietnam it is 'end of year' for schools and for thousands of expats form around the globe. This is the time when families start packing to go on to their next international posting or simply to go back home to visit families.   As a result,I have very few students for my drawing and watercolour classes so I decided to organise some informal drawing sessions for anyone who might be in town and fancies and couple of hour's sketching. 

For our first event, we met at the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf cafe in front of Notre Dame Cathedral. This is guaranteed to be a busy spot so it is good for people watching, traffic spotting and the 'basilica' makes for good architecture practice. 

I have drawn here before.  In fact, apart from a potted Frangipani in Jo's home, the sketch of the cathedral was my first in Vietnam. here it is - drawn 17/09/2012

Back then I spent many days wandering the streets of different districts of Saigon. With pencil and pen in hand I was searching the city to find what makes it tick, what people do and discover some of its history. My trip to Hoi An in December and the prospect of publishing a book of work about that amazing little town switched my focus and  I feel I have been neglecting the, so called  'Eclectic, Erotic, Exotic Saigon' 

But............. I am back! 

A few weeks ago I went out with some friends who operate street food tours of Saigon 
on their tour of some of the streets in District 3. This put me straight back in the mood for my Saigon Adventure II: Street Life; The Sequel. Saigon Street Eats is run by an Australian girl and her Vietnamese husband so they mix the inimitable Australian sense of fun and 'getting stuck in' with the Vietnamese  obsession for great food and Vu's local knowledge. It is an unbeatable way to get under the skin of this city.

After that tour I rushed home to do these little paintings. This is the beginnings of my next little book in which will be all about my first 12 months in Ho Chi Minh City. I need a title ............ err..... 'A year in Saigon'............. 'Cycling over lychees' .............. 'A wide beam to Ho Chi Minh City' ........... 'Weeds in my soup' ..... ideas on a postcard please.

My first magazine column

Oi Vietnam - May 2013
Download the magazine

If you are lucky enough to be in Hoi An on the night of a full moon, you will witness a delightful transformation taking place in the streets of the old town. In the evening, a calm descends over the old town. The electric street lights are turned off and all the lanterns are lit. No traffic is allowed on the streets, not even bicycles. This is a night for promenading and connecting with Vietnam’s rich cultural heritage.

The full moon is an auspicious night all over Vietnam. It is a night for people to remember their ancestors. Families and friends will gather around courtyard or pavement altars to drink tea and wait to see the moons reflection in their cups. On these table altars are the yellow flowers purchased that morning at the market, incense sticks, maybe a little clay figure of the jade rabbit and a collection of offerings of fruit, tea and wine. Some may make offerings to Chang’e who, according to Chinese mythology, drank the elixir of immortality and floated up to the moon. Some may honour the spirits that connect this world to the past and to the future, to the spirits that run in the rivers and blow through the trees and that bind all humans to the natural and the supernatural.

Synonymous in particular with the Lunar New Year festival (Tet), that takes place in January or February, the market women sell sunshine yellow chrysanthemums and marigolds. Bunches of flowers are swept up into baskets and bicycle panniers; they are tucked under arms and squashed in with the groceries to be taken home for the evening’s celebrations. They make tributes of yellow flowers that signify hope and family happiness or, perhaps, a wish for a new baby.

Another aspect of Vietnamese life is their love of playing games. Any time of day or night, groups of men gather around card games or chess boards but on Full Moon Night you can see Chinese Chess up close because games are staged outside some of the ancient houses and temples. Dressed in traditional Vietnamese costume, men play the game by candle light and welcome onlookers. If you want to take part, they will even introduce you to the rudiments of the game.

Other full moon festivals in Vietnam are Ram Thang Bay during the seventh lunar month when families give thanks to parents and ancestors and make offerings to pardon lost or wandering souls.  The famous ‘Mid-Autumn Festival’ in the eighth lunar month, which is celebrated throughout East Asia, is a time for homecoming and harvest and is marked by the exchange of moon cakes. In ancient times, Confucian scholars used to make up poems for impromptu performances on the night of this festival each year. Now this tradition is remembered each month in Hoi An as poetry readings are staged around the town.

To find out about future full moon dates, visitwww.hoian-tourism.com

A little of what you fancy ..............

Dear friends,

 as I write, I am sampling an elixir I purchased from a Chinese herbalist only yesterday.

I went in search of the magic root, Ginseng and was proffered a pint bottle of Ginseng Tonic Wine for 45,000 Vietnam Duong (£1.35) At 26 degrees of proof, this has the makings of an excellent alternative to Harvey’s Club Amontillado Sherry……… the only difference between these two fortified wines that I can discern on first tasting is that Sherry has never, in my long experience, ever caused made my top and the left side of my tongue to go numb. Interesting.  

In fact, as it slips down my throat I am getting the same sensation in other parts and a slight ‘Ginseng rush’ at the back of my skull and in my temples. Hmmmm.

But, I am not worried – no, not one bit, because on the label is a photo of an octogenarian running like a young buck!

One more sip……. Hmmm…………. Not so bad.

At this Chinese herabalist, I also bought just under 100gsm of whole, Korean Ginseng which costs $200 per kilo! Here is my stash for your perusal.

The herbalist's abacus

And another sip……………. Hmm …………. A bit like drinking Fisherman’s Friends……….. though I have never known them to make my lips go numb either.

My herbalist

My Ginseng Root being gently heated before slicing

slicing the root

This all happened because I went out with new friends Barbara and Vu who started an enterprise called Saigon Street Eats about 6 months ago http://www.saigonstreeteats.com/ 

We met when I went on one of their tours in March and sampled some amazing foods on the ‘Saigon seafood Trail’ evening tour during which we ate, amongst other things clams, oysters (not like the ones at home at all), conche, winkles, snails, razor, scallops and some things that looked like little penises! It was an excellent evening out and the best way I have yet found to discover hidden Saigon.

To help me with research for my next book, I asked if they could take me into some of the city neighbourhoods of Saigon that I wouldn’t otherwise have been able to find.

Ooooh – slight ache – frontal lobe………. Have another sip.

Here is a sample of some of the things they helped me to discover as I tagged along on one of their tours yesterday morning. 

Can't type any more - fingers have gone squishy...................... pictures will speak for me.

Breakfast of soup, noodles and lots of fresh weeds

Look at the size of those grapes

Sweet potatoes and bananas

A fine collection of wires

no words

Vu Checks his lottery ticket numbers

Oh look - I can still type. This lady is selling betel leaves for chewing. She also has betel leaves wrapped around arnica nuts and two choices of ground limestone (white or pink chalk I guess) that you add as a condiment to release the drug more quickly into the blood stream.  

Chewing the leaves and nuts is popular amongst the older generation. It stains the teeth and gums a deep red which used to be considered attractive. Some older women still have black teeth.

The ingredients used to blacken the teeth can take several forms.

In Vietnam it is common to use red sticklac, a resin obtained from secretions of a tiny aphid-like insect that sucks the sap of a host tree, as a dye.

The resin is diluted with lemon juice or rice alcohol and stored in the dark for a few days. It's then applied with pressure to all the teeth. An application of iron (mainly from iron nails) or copper from green or black alum and tannin from Chinese gall reacts with solution to give a blue-black insoluble coating

 What a palarva!

This photo was taken outside a banana leaf merchant. Tons of banana leaf are used every day in Vietnam, to wrap food for steaming and baking .  But actually, I was more interested in his vintage bike!

The rice & catfood merchant

Add caption

dried squid

dried seafood in the market. Tons of dried shrimp / prawns are sold every day in Vietnam

More egg varieties than we eat at home

Little baskets of silver fish

My stalker

Aren't these ladies great!

Colourful canopies

Lottery ticket sellers

Young man selling lottery tickets

It's lunchtime now

Government issue weighing scales

Spooky Banyan tree full of ghosts

How exotic!

Canon ball fruit and flowers

Into the temple gardens to cool down and get a manicure

What a brilliant morning out it was. Thanks to Barbara and Vu for being great hosts and helping me to discover more of the delights of Saigon. I did loads of sketching along the way and have lots of great materials for my next book.  

Oh look - and I can still type. One hour later I still have a little Ginseng rush going on in the skull and, who knows, maybe I will go out for a run later!  

Hen Gap lai !

Seven months in.

These days, when it comes to blogging, I seem to spend a lot of time planning what to write and even, sometimes, starting a blog but I just don't seem to to be able to finish one at the moment.

So, I have been asking myself 'what's wrong?' What has happened to my motivation? Am I becoming complacent? Is Saigon beginning to seem so familiar that I am not as before to write about it? Am I running out of things to say? (Not possible I here you say). So what's wrong?

Well, maybe there isn't anything wrong at all. The difficulty I am having is trying to squeeze my writing into the cracks between everything else I am trying to do. The truth is that those cracks are getting narrower and narrower.

Then, it occurred to me that I haven't actually blogged about all the projects I am involved with. I write about boats, river life, history, food, flowers, culture, festivals and all sorts of other things but I haven't  written about my projects. So, here goes .....................

When I first came here seven months ago, I ran around furiously trying to draw anything that would sit still and through this the city revealed itself to me street by street, inch by inch, smile by smile and one building at a time. I got an electric bicycle to help me get around and now I whizz around these chaotic streets with, almost, the confidence of the natives. And........ I completely love it!  Why didn't I get a scooter years ago?

After three months, I thought it was time to earn some money so planned some drawing classes to start straight after Christmas. I persuaded my favourite restaurant to let me use a quiet corner to run classes during their quiet periods in the mornings and afternoons and in January my first 8 students turned up lesson Number 1.  The first course went very well indeed and the students have all graduated (!!!) and are now moving onto an intermediate course where I will teach them to understand colour and use it in their drawings.

This week I started a new group of 5 students at lesson Number 1 and I have also been approached by the family next door to teach their eldest daughter (16) over the summer holidays. Her school year ends in mid April.

Talking of the family next door................ they came knocking on our door asking for me about five weeks ago. It seems that the lady of the house had seen some of my paintings already. Apparently, our previous housekeeper was in the habit of showing off my artwork to all the neighbours when I wasn't at home!  My neighbour was in a panic because her beautiful Lotus plant had just come in to flower and she wanted to capture it for all time. She asked me to do a BIG painting! 

This was an entirely new challenge for me on a number of levels. I hadn't ever done a portrait of a flower before and I haven't painted a large canvas before either. Undaunted, I asked the people at our local artspace to stretch a 100x100 cm canvas for me and I just got stuck in. This BIG canvas on a custom frame cost me just £7 plus a courier to rush it to my easel (£3)

Three weeks later the completed canvas was fitted with a smart brown frame and delivered and hung on the living room wall next door. The family's delight was almost tangible. They paid me and also gave me a gift of sweet, sticky green rice cake stuffed with tapioca paste. Hmmmm.

In December, I went to the little town of Hoi An to do some sketching.  I took one of my trusty Moleskine, Japanese folding albums and spend my days cycling, swimming, drawing eating, walking, sketching, cooking, talking, drinking, painting, researching, discovering, learning, photographing and making visual notes.

Half way through my stay, my Japanese album was filling up and people were asking to see what I was doing. Towards the end of my ten day sojourn, I met a young Korean woman who was working as a graphic designer for an airline magazine. She was not the first one to say that I should publish my sketch book but she encouraged my by saying that her magazine might be interested in writing an article about it because it would interest her readers. 

In the spirit of 'always say yes' I have decided to publish my sketch book and am now working with a delightful Bulgarian graphic designer called Ani to prepare the artwork for the printer. It looks like it will be a 52 page book and we are aiming to print in May. So far, I have produced around 60 paintings and drawings for the book and there may be more before I have finished.

Researching some of the facts for the book took me to the People's Party head office in Hoi An to find someone with 'the knowledge'.  I confess I was a little nervous entering the compound of the Hoi An headquarters. A chained dog was barking furiously as I walked from the gate step of the former colonial house of gentlemanly proportions. I crossed the threshold into a grey interior where a fan was lazily turning and an administrator sat behind a sliding glass hatch pouring over lists of figures in a antique-looking ledger.  

It was here I met Binh, a young civil servant who took great interest in my book and was very enthusiastic about helping me with local information that I was seemingly impossible to find on the internet.  I am gradually realising that the Vietnamese do not use the internet as we do. They do not use it as a repository for information intended for open global access but I guess that may change with time. 

Back home, the next door neighbour has now commissioned a second canvas - larger than the first!  This painting which she has already entitled 'Childhood' will depict her three lovely daughters aged 7-16 years cycling along under the 'Milk Flower' tree. This tree was panted outside the house only 6 years ago but it is already over 30 feet high! 



It seems the neighbours are determined to keep me busy. They have now asked me to give drawing lessons to the 16 year-old girl over the summer holidays. In total, I will be giving around 6-8 hours of lessons a week which is probably as much as I can manage for the foreseeable future.

My latest project involves working with the local art space 'Vinspace' which is run by a dynamic young Vietnamese artist who studied her MA at St. Martins in London. Under her wing there are artists from South America, Spain, the UK  and other young Vietnamese painters. She created a new gallery for their work about 10 months ago but nobody comes to visit. I am suggesting that they run a monthly art market to get the public and more artists and makers involved in the space. They love the idea and it now looks like I will be running it !!!  I have offered to do that for the next three months to see how it goes and to establish some good practices learned from similar projects in the UK.

Of course, I will take a table at this market so I now need to make some inexpensive items for sale each month. I will make some mini watercolours and frame them in little silk frames I found in a workshop for the disabled up in Hoi An.  Hopefully, this will lead to a new relationship with the workshop. A friend at home does work with people injured in the armed forces and we would like to make links between the two groups somehow.

Last month I was interviewed by a new magazine called 'OI Vietnam'. They printed a four age article about my work and also invited me to write a monthly column for them. In the spirit of always saying 'yes' I agreed to the challenge. The column will be based on my blog and especially my 'Postcards from Vietnam'  The first column will be printed in the May issue.  I am very excited about this; I never thought I would be a columnist!! 

This magazine is competing with two other well established, free, English language magazines. I may be biased but I do think the quality of editorial, the articles, layout and the photographic documentaries are of higher quality than the others. The editor is very experienced and I wish them luck. I look forward to a long association with them


So that's about it. Each week is filled with a series of drawing lessons,  producing little paintings for my book and composing the hand-written copy. As soon as that book is finished, I will start the next ( but I will need some help withe funding from a publisher this time). 

Recently I have had two commissioned paintings to produce and there is another in the pipeline. It looks like I will be running an art market and producing goods for sale as well. Each month I will create a new piece of artwork and a 700 word column for OI Vietnam. 

Vietnam is being very good to me so far.  I said I would give it a year, but I think I might be here a bit longer than that. I have also had three lovely visits from two dear friends for which I am very, very grateful - they make everything seem more real somehow. Thank you.