Natural Born Vagabond™

World of Postcards

The World of Postcards is a project by Natural Born Vagabond™ with a fun personal twist: A collection of postcards from each city we lived in. Call us old fashioned, but as far as globalisation and mobile communication are concerned, we still like to send and receive hand-written greetings. We have shoe-boxes full of cards amassed over a lifetime from our friends and fellow travellers. Each time we go through them they elicit fond memories of both the sender and the site. With that in mind, we started a small art project producing watercolour postcards from the cities near and dear to us.

Abra Ride - Dubai Creek Dubai’s old town by the Creek is one of our favourite hangouts. It is the area where the original Dubai developed. Now it is a busy district where wooden boats, called abras (small) and dhows (large), shuttle locals, tourists, merchants and traders alike from one market (known locally as “souk”) to another. Here once can feel the energy of the Middle East meld with the 200 nationalities that call Dubai home!

Flatiron - Starry Night
Inspired by Van Gogh’s Starry Night and Cafe at Night, we combined the two masterpieces onto a backdrop of the Flatiron district, our old neighbourhood when we lived in New York.

Montmartre by Night:
Le Basilic Brasserie
After spending a month in Paris in 2011, we had a chance to discover for ourselves why the French capital is known as the "city of lights". Below are some night scenes in watercolour inspired by our journeys along the streets of Montmarte.

Montmartre by Night:
Le Tire-Bouchon Creperie
One of our highlights while in Paris was to see “Midnight in Paris” (directed by Woody Allen) in the UCG Danton theatre in Saint-Germain-des-Prés. The cinema was, oddly enough, featured as a postcard view at the beginning of the movie, so it felt like we were part of the movie! Inspired by the film -- and trying to avoid the hordes of tourists searching for “Paris in love” -- we decided to drink lots of wine and hunt for the “time gate” that would transport us to 19th century Paris just as the protagonist in Woody Allen's production had done with much success and to much adventure.

Montmartre by Night:
Le Moulin de la Galette
Unfortunately, we reckon that we did not drink enough wine as we never did meet up with Gertrude Stein or Hemingway. Nevertheless, we still did create our own fun memories while wandering around the arrondissements of Paris...

Above postcards with selection of travel photographs and vintage illustrations are available for purchase as gallery quality Art Prints at the Natural Born Vagabond™ Art Shop