The artists' picnic 

Every Saturday, Jane goes to the house in the woods at Akyaka - there, she meets with fellow artists, improving her skills in congenial company - Teoman Ata, a figurative and abstract artist, welcomed me into his atelier - Jane had told me what a wise and gifted teacher he was -

There, in the shade of scorched pines, I chatted with Teoman - Cezanne was one of his favourite painters, as was van Gogh -

Hanging up inside the octagonal wooden house was a geometric landscape, depicting the mountain slopes above Akyaka - Teoman had painted this in the style of Cezanne - Teoman smelled of turps and tobacco - he had a neat beard and Jean Luc Goddard glasses - he'd been imprisoned for three years in the 1980's - his name had been on a list of Marxists -

One Thursday afternoon, Jane had a picnic for the artists in her garden - they were all women, save for Teoman and a man who had been a chemist - the retired chemist was a shy burly man, who spoke good English -

We all painted a collective oil painting - Teoman set up an easel in the garden - he cajoled anyone he could find to pick up a brush - I painted the oleander blossoms -

We drank glass after glass of tea, and ate the luscious cakes - I wanted the afternoon to go on forever - I loved the conversation, the colours of the marvellous garden, the songs of the birds -