March postcard to Katherine

Deciding what to do for my second postcard which was to be sent to Katherine, was relatively easy. She had already visited “la Touraine”, ate dinner here at my home and saw the Loire in all is glory. So it would be the Loire. Easier said than done. The Loire stretches wide and far.

I finally decided on the Montlouis sur Loire bridge which makes for an impressive scene , crossing the Loire.

…Montlouis bridge across the Loire..

Pencil and watercolor on watercolor paper.

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I wanted  to use a brown paper envelope for the postcard and wanted to draw an extract of the postcard on the envelope which brought me to this: Part of the same bridge of my postcard, with touches of white…too much.

..envelope 1: pen and gouche on brown paper envelope..

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Not being satisfied with either the exaggerated slant, nor the drawing, I grabbed another envelope and kept things more simple…in gouche: a hint of the Loire wih the “muettes” hovering over their nests on the islands in the Loire. A typical spring scene. Happy with the result, off it went to the UK!

..envolope 2: pen and gouche on brown paper envelope..

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All our postcards are to be found on A postcard from my walk

My postcard to Albrecht in February

Our first round of postcards in February have all been received and we’re on to MArch.

This is my card I sent off to Albrecht.

… a view  across the Loire…

…a view on our town, Montlouis sur Loire…

I’m also showing an album of all our postcards received in February. You can see and read about each card individually on A postcard from my walk.


People sketches in ink in a bistro in Tours..and a postcard.

I’ve picked up my pen again. If one stays on a break for too long, you can lose the desire to return. It is like that with everything in life. At some stage you need to apply some discipline to get going again.

For the first time in along while, I have done some sketches while having coffee in a bistro in Tours. My favorite way of doing it, is with contour lines. If I don’t watch it, I’ll do everything in contour fashion. I love it.

Some of the sketches worked, others didn’t. But it is always like that. Not every sketch is a success. I’m happy with the sketch of the three men at the top and I’m happy with the two men to the left in the bottom sketch. Unfortunately the child and man to the right didn’t work out.

I have also received my first postcard from Albrecht in Germany. Please visit A postcard from albrecht in Germany to see the post on his postcard.

A postcard from my walk – a global art exchange.

Just a quick interruption in my break..which I’m still enjoying…to tell you about a project that I’m involved in.

…pen sketch by Cathy Gatland…

A postcard from my Walk  has its roots in Sketchercise, a group of artists  sharing a love for art and the outdoors, nature and different forms of exercise. As our project name suggests, we are painting postcards from our Sketchercise outings and mailing  them this way and that way to each other, criss-crossing over 4 continents.

…a collage of works from our group..

Please visit our new blog, a postcard from my Walk, to follow along in our adventures the next year and more and where you can meet all the members on their introduction posts, see all the postcards and get fired up yourself to do more exercise and be creative while doing it.

Hope to see you there!

à bientôt!

Ronell