Mukalla.
Image size 30" x 19" (76 x 48 cm.)
Signed personally by David Shepherd
Mukalla - A centuries old Arab fishing townsituated half-way between Aden and Muscat on the Indian Ocean, inaccessable to the outside world except by sea or air.
A handful of European officials and a few thousand Arabs live and work in the blistering heat at the foot of a sombre red and brown mountain towering over the gleaming white mosque
and buildings of a community which time has passed by. A few traders' lorries and one car, strip lighting in the main street, and a gramaphone recording for the Muezzin's call to prayer
are the only concessions to modern living.
This pictorial record is almost certainly the first painting of Mukalla made by a professional artist.
