In the Recess of Time: Ancient Ruins and New Migrants

The series In the Recess of Time: Ancient Ruins and New Migrants consists of digital paintings that bring together the landscapes of ancient cities in Anatolia and flocks of flamingos. Archaeological sites such as Letoon, Side, Pergamon, Amastris, Knidos, Zeugma, Assos, Priene, Blaundus, and Alahan Monastery are presented as stone remains representing historical continuity, placed side by side on the same surface with “new migrants” that shift from one place to another.

The scenes in the series are not merely touristic landscape images depicting a single moment. They are constructed as hybrid scenes in which different layers of time intersect within the same frame: the historical trace of ancient ruins and the fragility of contemporary ecological reality. In this way, the viewer experiences a simultaneous encounter with both the archaeological past and the present-day mobility of migratory birds; the tension between the settled and the nomadic becomes visible.

These works demonstrate that software-based tools such as layers, masks, texture, and color management in the process of pixel-based digital painting are not merely technical conveniences, but active components that shape the aesthetic construction itself. The multilayered surfaces built using Adobe Fresco and a graphic tablet combine light, color transitions, and texture with a labor-intensive process of handwork and decision-making, similar to brushwork on canvas.

The series is positioned in the practical section of the proficiency in art / doctoral dissertation titled Digital Painting Practices in the Interaction of Technology and Art as a concrete example illustrating how digital painting redefines the concepts of originality, craftsmanship, and aesthetic value. In the Recess of Time invites the viewer to reconsider, through digital painting, both ancient cities and their present-day ecological and visual reality.