Felsenland

Natural sandstone monument in the palatine forest.

Castle ruins near Dahn.

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

pfälzer potpourri

Pirmasens, sunset and Hotel Matheis- soon to be demolished.

15 minute drawing frenzy: Rathaus Schifferstadt

Käfer/Kaiserslautern

Eine Hochzeit

A wedding in the castle of Kirchberg. A view from the highest room of the castle, the "aerie", and the party in the great hall which dates back to the 16th century. These were drawn as a gift for the couple.

Dänemark

A week in Denmark, spent in Aarhus sketching with Ea and Anette, in northwestern Jutland at the beach and in Kopenhagen, mostly sightseing.

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!