I haven’t had time to post my drawings from the afternoons with Casey the last two weeks, so here follows…
The first drawing was done at her house and she set up some beautiful statues. I had fun with this. I always have fun doing statues. I find they can hold long poses…
This drawing was done in graphite 9b, on drawing block, 50×35 cm.
…hold it, hold it..
This second drawing was last week and I set up some bottles, thinking I could at the same time play around with “different strokes”, which is the theme of Robyn’s book in our international sketchbook exhange. I enjoyed all the themes of the books and it revealed a little of each book’s owner, which made every book so unique. In this case, I can picture Robyn as someone with a whole variety of “different strokes”, making her interesting, lively with a great sense of humour and strong personality. So to come up with something for her book, “Different strokes”, I played around with this next drawing, which isn’t going into her book, but it did lead me down the path to the eventual pages I am busy adding to her book. And following the advice of her wise bee, I am also having fun doing it!
Drawing done in graphite, watercolour pencils, charcoal pencil, white conté, coffee, chocolate cake…ah…no, that was for eating..
…in search of different strokes…
I have also finally sent Lindsay’s canoe home, with a sniff and a blink… She’ll defintely post her whole book soon, but if you want to catch a glimpse of her canoe, see Captain’s log.
…Adieu..
When I woke for our last day in Stockholm, I was welcomed by a bitter cold wind and rain when I stepped outside. Luckily this was my “national museum” day, so I would be inside most of the time. I was way too early for opening time, so I tried some sketches of statues, standing in the shelter of the museum…well, I only did two, the others were done on other days.
Pen and Schmincke WC in handmade sketchbook(handmade by Marta)
Pen and Schmincke WC in handmade sketchbook
The second sketch is of the old water “pump” in the old town, Gamla Stan, which dates back to the middle ages, then the only supply of water availbale.
Pen and W&N WC in handmade sketchbook.
Pen and W&N WC in handmade sketchbook
The national museum had an exhibition on design (Dreadful delight), covering interior design and trends in design from the early 18th century to our modern society….exquisite antiques to wonderfully kitch, it is all there. And a huge exhibition on art work with a special exhibition of Alexander Roslin. I went through the whole museum which took me far over two hours and by some stage I couldn’t care less about Roslin and which royal face he captured when. All his portraits started looking the same. By that time, my back was killing me and my head was pounding and I was thirsty, not to mention ravishingly hungry. I couldn’t get out of the museum fast enough! Into the rain. Searching for food and water. Into the mall. I hate malls. Nevertheless, I found food and sheler there.
And then I decided I was also done with culture and history and sightseeing. I felt only like sitting. Doing nothing, except maybe shamelessly stare at people. So I stayed in the mall and only moved from seat to seat. At the same time making it my mission to discover the best carrot cake in the mall. Which I did. Fantastic! It seems like tradition to decorate a slice of carrot cake with a Cape gooseberry in Sweden, just in case you’re wondering what is sitting on top of this carrot cake in the next sketch. It is accompanied by hot chocolate, which unfortunately seems to look more like Coke!
Pen and W&N WC in handmade sketchbook
While I was feasting on my third trial of carrot cake and waiting to go to the airport, I captured a little of the optimistic and enthusiastic spirit of the young Swedish mothers and babies …..everywhere…. lots of them! Only in the coffee shop I was sitting, I counted 6 pretty mothers with their cute babies! Could it be the long dark days, all the candles and the cold weather?
These two strollers turned out real wonky and definitely wouldn’t keep any baby safe, but thankfully as a sketch it doesn’t have to be safe.
Pen and Yarka WC in handmade sketchbook
Casey and I met Marta in Paris for a one day adventure….it turned out somewhat of a “death march”. We met early morning at a cafe at the hotel de ville, had a coffee, and admired our beautiful little gifts, handmade by Marta. Marta is as graceful and loving, vibrant and radiant as she comes across on her blog and she is never without her wide, beautiful smile! See some photos.
We then took to the streets. Dropped in at Shakespeare and Company. I cheated here…sketched them from a photo later at home…it is far too small inside and I had far too few hands and far too many books to browse.
Stopped at Sennelier art shop and stepped out just before they locked up for lunch, which put us on the hunt for dejeuner as well. Found a bistrot, took off the scarfs and the gloves, almost started ordering the wine, had a change of mind, put the gloves and scarves back on and continued the hunt. After what seemed an eternity, passing the same shop quite a few times, we ended up at the little resto Bergamote, next to the marché of St-Germain. Warm and cosy, with the best traditional baked baguette, great food, friendly service and a very complicated ladies room, where washing hands rested on the per-chance discovery of a well disguised little knob…
The sunny afternoon brought us to the Jardin du Luxembourg just around the corner, and as we found a spot to do at least a sketch or two, a dark grey cloud was moving in fast. Without warning, the rain came cascading down unforgivingly and had people stampeding for the nearest shelter, trying to keep their dignity intact. Our California girl calmly took out her umbrella and offered us two “Frenchies” generously a dry spot…
The rain stopped as suddenly as it showed up and the sun took us further on our march, into Le cimetière du Montparnasse. By now, the sun had made way for the approaching evening and it was time for a body warming chocolat chaud. For me, this is the finest hour to be in Paris on a cold, wet winter’s day; the bars are filled with atmosphere, warmth and people meeting up to warm their hands around a hot chocolat chaud, the coats and scarves wrapped around chairs, the garcons serving up drinks in a chatty mood, the lights outside are playing on the wet streets, people are heading home from work with baguettes under the arms, pinching off a piece of crust every now and then.
The end of a long awaited day. Crossing Paris on foot, experiencing both bright sunlight and pouring rain, enjoying wine and food and song, sharing stories, painting and writing some memories, saying warm hearted goodbyes with promises for futures that may just happen…Life is a gift.
Sketches done in moleskine with pen and WC.
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An urn overflowing with autumn chrysanthemum in Jardin du Luxembourg.
La reine Clotilde, resting on a pillar – Jardin du Luxembourg
Another statue, then the rain came pouring down…
A while ago, I went to Sharon’s blog, http://flatsoundofwoodenclogs.blogspot.com/
and saw she had a new blog. And just there I decided I wanted a new one too! A change is always as good as a holiday! And one of my biggest fears in life is that I’ll stagnate or grow stale, become a dusty shelf….Therefore, change is one of the most important words in my vocabulary!
It was a bit of an uphill road getting to this new blog, but I believe it worked(will work soon). Now don’t expect something exotic, it actually looks quite the same as it does now, but who knows, that might change soon too?
So, I’m packing up my art stuff and moving here, where I’ll unpack my bags and stay…for a while.
and with this, I say: “Goodbye to the old…”
Africantapestry 
