The Ait Ben Haddou Kasbah, a UNESCO's World Heritage, and is a great example of the architecture of southern Morocco, with its oldest buildings ,constructed of clay brick ,dating from 1600. A way station and trading post . This magnificent Kasbah is located on the old route of the caravans starting from Marrakech and reaching the Sudan via the Sahara.It is here that I first met this artist and his paintings. He was surrounded by his creations and in a small table beside him had his brushes and several small cups containing mainly earthy tones colors as saffron yellow and brown,but also blue and purple. He was painting on a small ivory piece of paper and used yellow to fill in the background. He had a gas stove in front of his feet. When he finished passing the background on the white paper lit the stove, leaving burning with a low flame. Then he took the paper and played gently the bottomfor a few seconds over the flame. I saw something magical to happened , when the brown detail that he previously painted on the paper appearing the Kasbah displayed through the yellow background. This process seemed to me the revelation of a message written in invisible ink. They called them pyro aquarelles, these paintings are a common creation of Berber artists in southern Morocco. I bought 2 , one depicts a man leading two camels in front of the Kasbah and the other the same scene with the dunes of Mertzouga for background, and a third that he gave me as a gift ....with lonely camels in the desert… It was that one he used to show me the technique.
