Today was a delicious day! Just perfect for moving pots around and getting the fountain running, planting some, digging some and simply just being in the present.
A few sketches done after digging and dressing the garden.
All sketches done in sketchbook 19x25cm, rotring artist pen, red pilot pen and wash.
Between the tissues and Fervex and Strepsils and Tokala and Aiyani, I did manage to find a spot for my watercolour palette. These are two vegetables our house is never without. Actually, that is almost all there is , except for some cheese and a drop of milk in the fridge…I’m alone for the week, so it comes down to cereal for dinner tonight.
Pencil and watercolour on Fabriano artistico HP, 23×30,5cm
The traditional Fête des plantes is held at the château de la Bourdaisière here in Montlouis every year over the Easter weekend. We went on Sunday, I dragged my head cold body along, since I wanted to do drawing and didn’t want to wait another year.. As I was sketching some scenes, a man approached me and asked if he could have a look at my work. We started talking, and he turned out to be from France 3 television. So, on Sunday night “moi” appeared briefly on France 3 in a reportage about the festival, showing me sketching along…. the short time my sketching was being filmed, the thing I was worried about most, was whether I had any stains on my sleeve!
All sketches in rotring pen(.35) and watercolour in sketchbook 19x25cm.
From the garden of l’hotel Beaune-Semblancay in Tours…with the fountain dating from 1511, and the Renaissance chapel.
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….and the remaining façade, dating from 1518. Most of these buildings were destroyed in 1940.
Eglise St. Julien à Tours, built in the 13th century.
Sketches were done in sketchbook, 19x25cm with pen/pencil and watercolour.
It started out a sunny day and because it is the first day of spring, the Loire felt appropriate. The tables on the pavements outside the restaurants and bars were all festively dressed in spring attire….with little knee blankets, and cushions, pots of springflowers.
A quick first sketch of the Loire in the moleskine with pen and a wash and then I thought my watercolours weren’t going to be too bad….
The same scene as the wash, in watercolour, sketchbook 19x 25. I’m not happy with either of the watercolours…just doesn’t look like the Loire! I have a lot of work to do in landscapes!
A different view. Watercolour in sketchbook, 19×25
Some architecture…
A beach house in Vermont, Hermanus.
Khyalitsha, township north of Cape town. I took photo’s and then composed this sketch afterwards from it.
A historic house in Van Riebeeckstreet, Stellenbosch.
Another beautiful oldie…
Sunday, after church in Paarl, (the third oldest town in SA), when everybody else was enjoying tea, I sketched out in the heat, until I gave up and fled to the tea as well. So this sketch doesn’t show the lovely new gothic revival architecture of the church, which was built in 1842.
The old Mother church(Moederkerk) in Stellenbosch, with it’s outer buildings with gables and thatched roofs, typical of Cape Dutch architecture. Since 1679, it has been part of the town, established by Simon van der Stel. 
Africantapestry 
