St. Stephan

On a rather warm Sunday in February, i rode my bike to a suburb of Mainz, Gonsenheim and stopped to sketch glimpses of the church towers. Usually one can barely see the church at all, because all the building have been constructed very close by. But that time, a garage had been demolished, thus offering new views.

North of Rome

A couple of days spent near Montefiascone in the province of Viterbo, strolling through medieval towns and enjoying good company.

The blue water of Bolsena lake and a crumbling piazza up in the old town.

Then on to the strange town of Civita di Bagnoregio, sitting isolated on a volcanic plateau.

 

And Jassi, 8 months pregnant.

Castres & Montpellier

Naturhistorisches Museum, 2.

Great turnout at our last sketchmeeting in Mainz last saturday! We all drew the mandatory skeletons at Naturhistorische Museum and even though i already went twice to sketch there, i´m tempted to go again when they open up their new exposition.

Naturhistorisches Museum

Sketches drawn in the museum of natural history in Mainz, which is located in former convent St. Klara. The collection of stuffed and mounted animals is quite diverse, with a lot of very old exhibits of nowadays extinct animals. There´s a lot to draw, so it took me a while till the feeling of being in a cemetery sunk in. All those animals, looking at you from their glass eyes, frozen in a position some taxidermist thought was lifelike, in the dimly lit halls of that former cloister ..it was a bit eerie.

Völklinger Hütte

 Völklingen Ironworks is a world heritage site in Saarland region that dates back to 1873. The plant was closed in 1986, the year i was born. Nowadays it´s a museum, but apart from the rust it seems like the last steelworkers just left.

Photography by HC Adam

Mainz

Spent a Saturday sketching in Mainz, with Birgit. We started out with some coffee and icecream and slowly made our way to the old town, where we sketched the surroundings of the Mainzer Dom. Afterwards we met some friends at Volkspark, where the annual Weinfest was held.

 

Warszawa

Some days spent in Warsaw, drawing socialist monuments, restaurant interiors and people.

Apparently, a true Warsaw experience includes the visit to a milkbar,  an eastern european version of a self service restaurant. You pay for your meal at one counter and pick it up at a second one, but only after the cashier has screamed "Frytki! Nalesniki!" or whatever else you ordered. Everything´s greasy, good and cheap.

The Pałac Kultury i Nauki, the Palace of Culture and Science, still Polands tallest building, a a strange soviet landmark.

Dining on chinese food on Hoza Street. Zuzanna is a waitress who works in the restaurant and when she noticed i was drawing she asked me to draw in the restaurants guestbook. While drawing some more, we kept on talking.The other guests left, the kitchen closed, and i made a drawing of Zuzanna looking like a vampire. After many cups of green tea, we left and thought that this was the best way for the holiday to end. dziękuję Dżonka!

Przekąski Zakąski

 

 

Bar in Warsaw, virtually no seats, just a big self-service counter where grumpy waiters serve beer and plates of potatoes and pickled herring for a very reasonable price.

Mazury

Channeling the Symposium experience in a Laloran sketchbook that I got in Sagars Workshop, and using Shari Blaukopfs reduced palette of Alizarine, Aureoline and Ultramarine. This is the Masurian lake district in eastern Poland, where I spent part of my holiday. I drenched myself in Autan and sat by the water, the mosquitos and hornets left me alone and i was able to sketch peacefully.

USk BCN 2 + 3

At the Barcelona Pavilion, practicing perspective drawing and making the Barcelona Chair look more saggy than it actually was.

Shari Blauklopf´s workshop in the beautiful convento Santa Anna.

Dining on beer and falafel in L´hortet.

After tiring of Mies´ modernism i drew the partcipants of the perspective workshop.

Overwhelmed by the crowds at Arc de Triomf, i tried to capture that atmosphere of busy sketching.

On the last evening I kept drawing until midnight, having a last Clara in el Raval with Birgit.

My first symposium, an intense, challenging, amazing, crazy experience. Hopefully next year i´ll be able to participate as well, wherever that might be!

BCN USk 1

Some glimpses of the day before the symposium started. Leaving Frankfurt Airport, sketching some planes and a girl who kept wiggling her toes.

Meeting some sketchers at Arc de Triomf and getting started on drawing. Later we moved on to El Raval and and i drew this view of Carrer Elisabets/Carrrer del Àngels- This must have been one of the most drawn motifs for the Urban Sketchers, being both picturesque and close to CCCB..Flaf and Miriam were just around the corner, painting it too.

First round of Drink and Draw; Enno, Miriam and Ira at the next table.