Blooming Tiles

Or perhaps “Blue Ming Tiles” – except of course these are not Ming tiles! This ceramic floral pattern is to be found on a courtyard wall in the Toshhovli Palace (or Tach Khaouli Palace) in Khiva, Uzbekistan. The palace was built in the 1830s, so I can only suppose that these tiles are also about 190 years old. The whole palace, like many buildings in the region, is richly decorated with magnificent tile patterns – this particular detail is at ground level so easier to get a close look at.

I am rather pleased that original concept of this image, a real flower bursting out of the stylised glazed pattern, does actually seem to work. Inevitably there are also aspects of this painting that I’m less happy with, particularly the blue of the tiles. I was being lazy and using colours straight out of the tube – and I thought this cobalt blue was a good match to the colour of the tiles I have in my photos. In fact the original tiles have a richer darker blue, but by the time I realised this it was a bit too late to change my approach …