moleskine – Page 2 – Africantapestry

Posted on October 9, 2009October 10, 2009 by Myfrenchkitchen · 7 Comments

Katherine in Touraine

This past week Katherine was in Touraine with her sister and niece. First stopping off to visit Monet in Rouen and then Paris and then arrived here in Tours, valley of the chateaux…but why am I telling you all when you can go read it on her Travels with a sketchbook and Making a mark. See links lower down.

…distracted sketches in Tours…

sketches done with pen and watercolour washes in aquarelle moleskine

What I can tell you is that it was so great to meet her! Such a fascinating person! With a very real passion for art, for books. A sponge for information. She thrives on researching and gathering information, and sharing it is her way of learning and growing. She confessed that she loves being asked questions, which takes her to digging and researching…so there you go, ask away! She is devoted to sketching which she does with great ease and comfort in remote corners as well as around buzz with lively people and situations. In fact, she thrives on scenes where the challenge to capture people coming and going, results in a scene where the setting is static, but the ambiance is moving and changing. Withing as little as ten – fifteen minutes she can sketch a restaurant scene with tables and chairs and windows, cake and drinks and a traffic of people arriving and leaving, and they all find a place in her scene, the Katherine way. That becomes her unique view.

She’ll capture the skies in order to define the relief of Mont St Michel. Or sitting opposite a boring road, where there is nothing but a line of autumn trees with flaming yellows, soft greens and a dark tunnel and it tuns into a gentle fall scene of serenity. Or how about Chenonceau, where she would seat herself on a corner away from the people traffic, patiently waiting for people, blocking her view, to take their photo, and then shows up with a fairy tale chateau, water reflections and all. Or the gesture of two couples on a park bench, worn down from being tourists, perfectly captured to make you almost feel their fatigue!

By telling you this, it may sound that we did a lot of sketching together, but unfortunately we didn’t even do a single one together! Time passed too fast and too stuffed with things to do. However, I saw her sketchbooks, paged through them again and again and only really saw her art for the first time. The computer screen doesn’t do her sketches justice and seeing her sketch books, was like opening story books! We also did indulge in eating a deliciously light French chocolate mousse cake. We made up for that little sin by lunching on light salads and last night said goodbye over candles with champagne and boeuf bourguignon! I was fortunate to enjoy her sketching the restaurant scene during lunch, while her sister and niece and I saw to the conversation and entertaining side of the meal.

But before you think I’m completely worthless, I can show two quick and distracted sketches I did while waiting to meet up with them in Tours. Part of our hotel de ville, typical French streetlamp and a few chaotic brasserie chairs! I can also show you Katherine’s creative hands and part of her sketchbook. To full enjoy this trip of hers, you’ll have to visit her sketchblog Travels with a sketchbook, where a wealth of French sketches will await you, probably as from Monday, when she’ll be back home and start telling and showing. And with all the books she took back home, Making a mark will surely be filled with loads of information, perfumed with a little French panache. Don’t miss out!

And I’m leaving you with a little personal glimpse of her…She has a laugh that can be tickled easily, with eyes that join in, crinkling with delight. She can talk and chat as easily and entertainingly as her writing is. She has an enthusiastic YES! when fascinated by something, she adores her two cats, she can lose herself in travel…and oh yes, she loves a cup of tea!!

…Katherine’s lunch sketch…

…her book and her tools…

Posted on October 5, 2009October 5, 2009 by Myfrenchkitchen · 18 Comments

Hawai’i: sketches and chronicles 2.

My favourite stopping corner was here at the koi pond. Its tranquility and the elegance of the kois in their ballets seduced me into seating myself on the rock by the edge early every morning, staring at them endlessly, sipping my kona coffee.. the world was still quiet when I softly spoke to them, telling them my schedule for the day. Joking about their pouting lips searching for a delicacy. And then I’d sketch them. Snap them. Photo’s galore. They enjoyed posing and pirouetted spontaneously only for me.

Voila some stops on my walks. Colourful canoes on the lagoon. Elegant flamingoes. Impressive statues. I could probably have stopped more often to sketch, but a big part of the allure of Hawai’i is in the reflecting and quiet time, staring into distance. Quiet and still. Watching waves break. Listening to the wind rustling through the palms. Being entranced by the play of light on the shallow waters by the shore. Waiting along with the surfers for that next big one. Feeling that drop of sweat trickling down your back, telling you it’s time to move on. People who don’t do that, miss out.

In this quiet time in still corners of the island, away from people, in solitude with only the wind and the ocean as company, I have succeeded in solving issues, finding peace in who I am and how I am. It gave me acceptance with roads I will be following from now on. It gave me breathing space and freedom to come to terms with bridges that were burnt. I imagine I gave it all up to the waves and the ocean, while the soft touch of the breezes swept me clean from disappointments and sadness and just maybe the whisper of the palms filled me with optimism and a strong spirit. I look forward to tomorrow.

…canoes…

…flamingo…

…statue…

Because I enjoyed the koi fish so much, and because I have these millions of photos of them(almost), I thought to share them with you, offering them(like with the sunflowers) to those who so desire, to download and paint, paint paint them! Throw the photo’s together and compose a watercolour or pastel, or oil or drawing. Make marks…they are wonderful to paint and play around with. Look at the water as well…lovely shapes and colour. Great movement. Here are some close ups as well as general shots. So. I invite you to enjoy!

…koi fish for painting…

click on image to print larger version

For more photo’s on the trip see Myfrenchkitchen: travel

To be continued…

Posted on October 2, 2009October 2, 2009 by Myfrenchkitchen · 18 Comments

Hawai’i: sketches and chronicles 1

Safely back home from Hawai’i, with unforgettable memories, tons of photos(for memories, paintings and snazzy shooting!) a heatlhy tan, fit as a fiddle, tired and dizzy with jet lag and hungry for french coffee!

Since Hartman spent his time with convention meetings, I had all the time in the world to selfishly do my own thing. I walked a lot, picked up things on my way and sketched them in our “room with a view”, when alone in the evenings. I carried my camera and sketchpad with me during the day, hiked long stretches up and down the coast and stopped every now and then to indulge in sketching some part of nature or the many art statues and animals around.

…findings along the way…

We were on Kona, the big island, still very quiet and undeveloped in comparison to the others and to me, up until now a world unknown. Taking about 6 hours to travel around the whole island, you travel through rain forests the one minute passing an empty desert the next, cows grazing fields follows shortly after, just to suddenly make way for dry volcano rock and finally ending in sandy beaches and tropical flora.

I found the trip very inspirational and came back home with some ideas for paintings. I’m not sure whether “island painting” is really me, but I am looking forward to the challenge of putting something different on canvas than what I’ve done up to now. Even if it is just for memory sake, because I don’t think I have the courage to go that way again…the long flight and stops are far too challenging for me!

Some sketches…seed pods and flowers picked up from the ground. Parts of a statue captured here and there. Up until the day we left, the coffee table was covered with findings from every day along with pens and watercolour pads and palettes and a note I left to the cleaning lady…to leave it all as it is. She was so cute – she would take the dirty glass I use for my watercolour and replace it with a clean one every day. She would also leave me a little pile of napkins next to my palette. By the last day, the leaves were dry, the flowers wilted, the napkins all used up and I felt quite emotional to throw it all in the bin. To me it was a story which came to its end. I’m always sad when a story ends, even when the end sails happily off into the sunset.

All sketches were done in the aquarelle moleskine with rotring pen and watercolour.

We had the most beautiful view from our room with the sunset straight in front of us over the ocean. The doors to the balcony stayed open all the time we were there. We fell asleep with the sound of crashing waves in our ears and we woke up with the smell of the ocean whifting in through the open doors early morning. I could live a life like this – the tempo slow and almost heavy with laid back pace, stressless, nonchalant, with hips swaying and flowers bouncing in tied back hair.

…from early morning…

…to sunset…

See some more photos here at Myfrenchkitchen: Travel.

To be continued…

Posted on August 28, 2009August 28, 2009 by Myfrenchkitchen · 22 Comments

Sketching with greens

A post for Sketchercise:

This morning’s walk provided me with greens.I have to admit that I don’t enjoy drawing/painting/rendering leaves. Maybe it is the greens in them I shy away from. I find green a difficult colour to paint in watercolour as well as oil, or any other medium. Beautiful in nautre, difficult to render. Too much green can make me feel quite ill. The wrong greens can look very artificial. Green can easily look flat and lifeless. Like white, green isn’t just ..green. It absorbs and reflects its environment and by looking closer you’ll see browns and reds, yellows and blues…a whole spectrum of colour. And then we get transparent greens and saturated greens, which you can’t paint with only green from a tube or pan. Even oils are difficult and mix differently than watercolour, for one – we have a white which can be added to green in oils, then making it less transparent of course. Which explains why I rarely paint with green, but prefer mixing a green. And I love to mix it directly it on my paper or canvas to have the colours flow into one another, giving dimension and vibrancy and life, even if the green isn’t the “perfect” green. I sometimes add olive green(Schmincke) and the very different olive green(W&N).

Please do tell how you paint greens?!

…apple branch…

In these three sketches, I have used more or less the same palette:

Cobalt yellow pale(W&N), cobalt yellow deep(W&N), yellow ochre light(Schmincke), lemon yellow(W&N),french ultramarine(Sennelier), cobalt blue(Sennelier), Prussian blue(Sennelier), Cerulean blue(W&N), Paynes gray(W&N), burnt sienna(W&N), raw umber(Sennelier), olive green(Scmincke).

…walnut branch…

…acorn branch…

All sketchesdone with rotring pen and watercolour in watercolour moleskine

Posted on August 27, 2009August 27, 2009 by Myfrenchkitchen · 10 Comments

Walk and sketch 1

A post for Sketchercise.

With a little bit of time on my hands I put on my heavy hiking boots..urgh.. and took off for a walk. All the flowers on shrubs have made room for berries of all colours. Since I am in the process of noting all the fauna and flora in this area, I dragged along my sketching palette, which is boringly still the same as you’ll see in this link, except that my sketchbook might be the small moleskine or the normal one…watercolour of course. I like the paper of the watercolour moleskine.

Tokala and Aiyani tailed along, until they realized to their horror that we were going further than normal. That had them plonk down under the apple tree, all the while complaining about my imbecility. On my promise to give them joghurt back home, they sulkily agreed to wait under the apple tree. I kept my promise.

…prunellier and aubepine…

…bramble, stinging nettle and dock leaves…

All sketches done in rotring pen and watercolour in watercolour moleskine.

Posted on August 26, 2009August 27, 2009 by Myfrenchkitchen · 15 Comments

Le Boss is in Paris – sketches

…le Boss is away!!…

It has been quite a while that I held a sketch pen and book in my hand, but now that le Boss is in Paris for the week and I am alone at Coin Perdu, I took my chance to go from …

…this…