Istanbul Uncovered

Down a set of stone stairs below the busy streets of Istanbul, artist Coskun Uzunkaya sits in a corridor of the Caferaga Medresesi — a circa 1559 Islamic school turned artists’ studio — lashing vivid layers of paint into a tray of water. As he slices the water with an awl, the colours float and shift into hypnotic, kaleidoscopic patterns.
Uzunkaya is a master of traditional Ebru painting — he spent 18 years studying the marbling technique and is now passing it on to