Iron & Wine

Iron & Wine supported by Jesca Hoop

Ambre de Birmanie

It´s too cold for watercolours already so until i fill my waterbrush with vodka, it´s a wash of ink before and after the drawing. This is Würzburg, where they sell mulled wine on the old Bridge over the river main. There are great views towards the Dom and the christmas market as well as the castle in the first sketch.

Wilhelmshöhe

Wilhelmshöhe is a baroque landscape monument in Kassel, Germany. It´s the only thing i ever visit when i´m in Kassel, a city which is not particularly known for being pretty. Is Wilhelmshöhe pretty? It is one of those monumental, slightly ridiculous, neverending projects that european rulers of the 18th century liked to develop in their freetime. In this case, Karl von Hessen- Kassel, and most of his succesors. It is huge, and one can easily spend the entire day walking about, finding cascades, fountains, hidden alcoves, chinese gazebos and artificial ruins.

Paraty

Arriving at Paraty´s Casa de Cultura, some participants were already queuing up for registration. I started drawing the receding tide in the streets, a subject that must have found its way into every sketchbook in Paraty by the end of the symposium.

My first class is by João Catarino on the theme of reflections- we hurry to the river and get started, anxiously glancing towards a darkening sky. The raindrops create an interesting pattern on my painting, but soon the rain drives us to a nearby pousada. It is a lovely, loose approach, and we end the workshop with a lunch of fried maniok by the beach, browsing through sketchbooks.

The next workshop is 180 degrees by Stephanie Bower, on architecture, which i guiltily take because i´m a lazy sketcher who spends little time on preliminary perspective scribbles, just expecting the drawing to work anyway. Sometimes it works, often it doesn´t. Cars are also great for practicing perspective and there are many little gems of old Volkswagen in the streets of Brasil. While i´m painting the beetle by the harbour, the tide comes in and i have to abandon the sketch.

Next is Nina Johansson, teaching us how to influence the mood and impression of a sketch created by simple adjustments to the colour palette and the line character. These exercises result in a gloomy church, and a way more cheerful street scene, though i still tend to ignore the people. Maybe an issue i´ll tackle next year.