Porto after the Symposium, Tramstop

Found out that I forgot to post one of my sketches with just a few pencil lines beforehand before using the watercolour. I began with the yellow ocre sky. The green tram is not the regular tram it is a special tour tram. I came by this place a lot of times a day as it is close to the Ribeira...and I did not show you my extremely fast approach (different tram) to that subject below.

Hätte fast vergessen diese Skizze zu posten, die nur mit wenigen Bleistiftstrichen vorgezeichnet war und dann mit Aquarellfarbe vervollständigt wurde. Die grüne Tram ist keine normale Bahn, sondern eine für Sonderfahrten. An diesem Ort kurz vor dem Ribeira-Viertel bin ich täglich unzählige Male vorbeigekommen...und ich habe auch meine extrem schnelle Skizze vom selben Thema (andere Tram) noch gar nicht gezeigt - siehe unten.

 

Crailsheim - Diebsturm

Spending a lot of time at work and some time harvesting my garden my time to draw is reduced to a minimum. The weather has been so good and rather hot this summer that my garden is very abundant. I enjoy every minute outside and hope that fall will be as good as that. Tonight we had some long awaited rain. Above a drawing from Crailsheim with lots of cast shadows as I like it.

Zwischen Arbeit und Garten habe ich leider nur sehr wenig Zeit zum Malen. Das Wetter war bisher super und ich kann mich kaum an einen heisseren Sommer erinnern.  Ich nutze jede freie Minute draussen und hoffe, dass der Herbst genauso gut wird. Heute Nacht hatten wir endlich den lang ersehnten Regen. Oben eine Zeichnung, die ich in Crailsheim gemacht habe mit vielen Schattenwürfen, genau wie ich es mag.

Crailsheim - Spitalstrasse

Another one of Crailsheim. I left out the roadwork at the building site by the hospital straight ahead.

Hier noch ein Bild der Spitalstraße in Crailsheim. Die Baustelle am Krankenhaus im Hintergrund ist kaum mehr sichtbar.

Crailsheim - Liebfrauenkapelle

Being back home for some time now I did a few drawings of the city of Crailsheim in ink and watercolour.

Nun längst wieder Zuhause angekommen habe ich angefangen in der Crailsheimer Innenstadt einige Gebäude mit schwarzem Tuschestift und Aquarell zu zeichnen.

Porto after the Symposium, Nightsketch

Since I saw the nightsketches of the two Pedros I wanted to try that as well. During the symposium there was no time although Pedro invited me to join them for their nightsketching session. Maybe next time. So I did one on my own and included some people in the foreground. I began with the light tones and went darker and darker. Real fun. I should try this more often.

Seit ich die Nachtskizzen der beiden Pedros gesehen hatte, wollte ich auch einmal wieder eine Nachtskizze machen. Während des Symposiums war leider keine Zeit dafür, obwohl Pedro mich einlud mich ihnen anzuschliessen. Vielleicht beim nächsten Mal. Nun habe ich es mal ganz alleine ausprobiert und fand Gefallen daran. Ich begann mit den hellen Tönen und fügte die immer dunkleren Töne dazu. Hat Spass gemacht. Das sollte ich noch öfters probieren.

Porto after the Symposium, Up the River

Porto after the Symposium, Tramstop

This is a charming place, above the city at the stop of the old cable car. 

Ein charmanter Platz, hoch oben in der City bei der Festung.

Weiter unten in der Altstadt, kann man das Alltagsleben der Bewohner in ihren mit Azulejos gefliesten Häuser beobachten...

Porto after the Symposium, Close to Sao Bento

Porto after the Symposium, In Town

Now that I am at home I am still in the Porto mood. I think a symposium is such a great thing that you have a lot of ideas and thoughts to "digest" afterwards, and I still have this enthousiasm that goes along with it. I did not try out a lot of my goodie bag so far, but I will report on a few things as soon as I have tried them out.

Wieder Zuhause bin ich noch immer in Porto-Stimmung. Ein Symposium ist so eine grosse Sache, dass man viele Ideen und Gedanken mitnimmt, die man erst nach einiger Zeit "verdauen" kann und ich spüre noch immer den Enthusiasmus der damit einhergeht. Von meiner Goodie Bag habe ich noch nicht viel ausprobiert - es war einfach keine Zeit dazu - aber sobald ich Zeit habe berichte über den einen oder anderen Artikel.

Lion on a wall/Löwe an einer Hauswand

 

Porto after the Symposium, Praia dos Ingleses

At Praia dos Ingleses are beautiful beach bars and from one of them I did this direct watercolour. I had fun with the big waves.

An der Praia dos Ingleses gibt es einige gute Beach Bars und in einer davon habe ich dieses direkte Aquarell gemalt. Die grossen Wellen haben mir so gefallen.

Porto after the Symposium, Jardim do Morro, Gaia

This time we took the Metro, crossed the bridge (high up) and stood in the Jardim do Morro directly, with a beautiful view of the Douro River and Porto. A quick direct watercolour sketch and we went down to visit a Port wine cellar and try some Port.

Dieses Mal nahmen wir die Metro, überquerten die hohe Brücke Dom Luis I und standen fast direkt im Jardim do Morro, mit einem schönen Blick von oben auf den Douro und die Stadt Porto am anderen Ufer. Nach meinem schnellen direkten Aquarell ging es dann runter in die Stadt Gaia, um einen Portwein - Keller zu besichtigen und eine Portwein - Probe zu machen.

Porto after the Symposium, Jardim do Roseiral

We were in the Rose Garden close to the Palacio de Cristal (which is in renovation right now). Small stone benches beneath trees gave us shelter from the strong sun that day and I could do a quick direct watercolour of the doors that lead to balconies overlooking the rose gardens. The weather was very attractive in Porto with around 22 to 25 degrees C. and a breeze from the sea while at home there were unusually high summer temperatures. Today just my small drawing kit and a small sketchbook as during the workshops I had bags with me that seemed to weigh tons....(of sketchbooks and paper)

Wir waren im Rosengarten in der Nähe des Palacio de Cristal (der momentan renoviert wird). Kleine Steinbänke unter Bäumen schirmten uns vor der an diesem Tag starken Sonne etwas ab und ich konnte ein schnelles Aquarell der romantischen Türen mit dahinterliegenden Balkonen machen. Von dort aus hatte man einen tollen Blick auf die darunterliegenden Rosengärten. Das Wetter in Porto war sehr angenehm mit 22 bis 25 Grad während es ungewöhnlich hohe Temperaturen Zuhause gab. Ich hatte nur mein kleines Malset dabei. Weniger ist mehr, dachte ich mir nach dem Symposium, denn während den Workshops kam es mir manchmal vor, als schleppte ich Steine (Skizzenbücher und Aquarellpapier) mit mir herum.

Porto after the Symposium, Marina

The marina a few km away from Matosinhos (in the background). From Porto you could walk by foot here as it is not too far. Did the pencil drawing on site and coloured at home.

Das ist die Marina, ein paar km vor Matosinhos (im Hintergrund). Von Porto aus kann man hier zu Fuß herkommen - es ist nicht so weit. Hier habe ich nur die Bleistift-Zeichnung vor Ort gemacht und dann erst Zuhause die Aquarellfarbe aufgebracht.

Porto after the Symposium, Douro view close to Palacio de Cristal

Another view from above. We spent some time around Casa da Musica and Palacio de Cristal and found a nice spot overlooking the river again.

Wieder ein Blick von oben nach unten. Wir haben uns die Gegend um die Casa da Musica und den Palacio de Cristal angesehen und fanden einen schönen Platz, um den Fluß überblicken zu können.

Porto after the Symposium, Fog in Matosinhos

We went to the beach again. This time to Matosinhos. But what is that: FOG?! You could hardly see the water. I did a very fast drawing (direct watercolour) of the people I could hardly see.

Wir sind nochmal an den Strand gefahren. Dieses Mal nach Matosinhos. Aber was ist das: Nebel?! Mitten im Sommer - man konnte das Wasser kaum sehen. Ich hab nur eine sehr schnelle Skizze (direktes Aquarell) von den Menschen gemacht, die man kaum sehen konnte...

Porto after the Symposium, Miradouro Ignez

This is a beautiful spot with the river and Gaia opposiste and I had a nice couple with hats on their heads blocking my view, which was great as a foreground. The orange building is part of the Alfandega (which was our centre point for a few days) and far away you see the tiny Sandeman logo in town.

Das ist ein sehr schöner Ort um den Fluss und Gaia auf der anderen Seite zu überblicken und ich hatte ein nettes Pärchen jeweils mit Hut vor mir, die einen guten Vordergrund für mein einfaches Bild abgaben. Das orangene Gebäude ist ein Teil der Alfandega (die für einige Tage unsere Zentrale war) und etwas weiter entfernt kann man noch ganz klein das Sandemann Logo in der Stadt sehen.

Porto after the Symposium, Espinho

Yes and I went to the beach in Espinho as well. Espinho is just a 40 min. ride by train and it was a treat after the hustle and bustle of the days before to chill by the water. Today just a relaxed, simple sketch.

Ja und am Strand von Espinho war ich auch. Espinho ist nur ca. 40 min. mit dem Zug entfernt und es war eine echte Wohltat sich von der Hektik der letzten Zeit zu entfernen und einfach nur zu chillen. Deshalb heute nur eine relaxte, einfache Skizze.

Porto after the Symposium, Catedral Sé

After the symposium there were still a few sketchers in town. So was I, as my flight was cancelled. I had to book a new hotel for the next few days and had unexpected longer holidays than I thought before. Good that I had my watercolours on hand and anyway during the symposium I did not have enough time to explore, so the holiday was on again... this direct watercolour was made from a comfortable seat in a café below the cathedral of Porto. In front of the Cathedral I met watercolour artist Joan Tavolott (NYC) doing a beautiful sketch of the panorama with lavender in front. (We were joking about being some of the last remaining foreign sketchers in Porto...)

Nach dem Symposium waren noch immer ein paar Zeichner in der Stadt. Ich war auch noch da, denn mein Flug ist ja gestrichen worden und ich musste mir für die Folgetage nochmal ein Hotel suchen. Toll, jetzt hatte ich noch ein paar Tage länger Urlaub und da ich nun etwas mehr Zeit hatte die Stadt weiter zu erkunden, packte ich meine Aquarellfarben ein und malte unterhalb der Kathedrale von einem Café aus die obere Ansicht als direktes Aquarell - ohne Vorzeichnung. Vor der Kathedrale traf ich die Künstlerin Joan Tavolott (NYC), die gerade eine Stadtansicht mit Lavendel im Vordergrund malte. (Wir machten Witze darüber, dass wir wahrscheinlich unter den letzen ausländischen USkler in Porto waren...)

Wir malen Crailsheim - Workshop (Vol. II)

In between my Porto stories I would like to tell you about...

The next Generation of Urban Sketchers in Crailsheim:

Beautiful weather awaited us when we met to sketch the city of Crailsheim and my very talented students did a whole lot of drawings there. We began at Bullinger Eck (the red building) and went through town till we came to Diebsturm (our last drawing of the day). We did some gouache testing in between while having an icecream and we all learned a lot from each other. I am very proud of all my students and would wish they'd all continue Urban Sketching. Thank you for the fun we had together.  Here are a few of their super drawings:

We made an exhibition for the parents. My thanks go to my students, the parents, the Jugendbüro and the very helpful staff and Frau Lindner from Stadtmuseum Crailsheim.

My special thanks go to Billy, a true Urban Sketcher who supports me in any way.




 Die nächste Generation von Urban Sketchern in Crailsheim:

Bei schönstem Wetter trafen wir uns zum Malen in der Stadt Crailsheim und meine sehr talentierten Schüler machten jede Menge Zeichnungen der Stadt. Wir begannen am Bullinger Eck und gingen dann quer durch die Stadt bis zum Diebsturm (das war unser letztes Bild des Tages). Dazwischen waren wir in der Eisdiele und testeten Gouache-Farbe aus. Wir lernten viel voneinander und hatten Spaß. Ich bin sehr stolz auf meine Schüler und freue mich, wenn sie weitermalen oder vielleicht mit dem Urban Sketching weitermachen. Vielen Dank Euch allen. Hier einige der schönen Zeichnungen. 

Für die Eltern machten wir am Ende noch eine Ausstellung im Spital. Mein Dank gilt den talentierten Schülern, den Eltern, dem Jugendbüro und den freundlichen Mitarbeitern des Museums sowie Frau Lindner vom Stadtmuseum in Crailsheim.

Mein spezieller Dank geht an Billy, eine echte Urban Sketcherin, die mich bei  allem unterstützt (leider nicht auf dem Bild).

USk Symposium 2018 in Porto, What I will miss most!

What I will miss most:

1. Breakfast with my friends, the way to the Alfandega in the morning seeing    
    sketchers already on the way and the early bird sketching
2. The singing of Amber Sausen to begin each day of the Symposium
3. The creative energy of the crowd, all as crazy as I am (some even more...)
4. The sketchers everywhere in the streets
5. The drink & draw, the art talk, the drawing on paper tablecloth, the learning, 
    the flipping through and talking about each others sketchbooks 
6. The sharing spirit
7. The multi-cultural open minded people 
8. The freedom to sketch all day and the allabout holiday feeling
9. The friendly locals and the good food
    and last but not least (and the point I miss most)
10. my old and new like-minded sketching friends 

Marc Holmes was right. This was one of the best experiences ever.
Let's meet again next year. 


The above drawing was made in Gaia, opposite Porto.

But this is NOT THE END of my travels, as my original flight back home was cancelled and consequently I did some more drawings as I therefore stayed a few days longer in Porto and the surroundings...so stay tuned...

USk Symposium 2018 in Porto, Day 4, Final Reception, drink & draw

On our last Syposium day (which was not our last day in Porto) there was still the raffles draw (where I actually won the package below photographed on my hotel bed with no. blue 31 - this is great!) 

And there was the closing reception....too bad for my friends (and in the end for me) that for non passholders they wanted 20 Euros/Person for entering the Reception as some of my friends therefore did not come and we others left earlier to join them as we wanted to be together. 

I would have loved to stay longer at the Reception, but how if your friends stay outside. A bit sad... anyhow this was a great event and I enjoyed every second with old friends and new. My thanks go to the GREAT ORGANIZERS, THE VOLUNTEERS and to all our nice portuguese hosts and GREAT PEOPLE of PORTO.

USk Symposium 2018 in Porto, Day 4, Final Photo on Praça da Liberdade in Porto

...drink & draw with Anya, Sandra, Paula, Elin & Fairouz...

 


More than 800 artists from all over the world and lots of additional sketchers who did not have symposium passes and came anyhow to this extraordinary event. What a massive creative ENERGY!

The group photo of all sketchers can surely be found somewhere on the urbansketchers site (I am the red dot somewhere in the crowd...)

Mehr als 800 Künstler aus aller Welt und noch zusätzlich viele Sketcher, die keinen Symposiums- Pass erhalten haben und trotzdem angereist sind... was für eine gewaltige kreative ENERGIE!

USk Syposium 2018 in Porto, Final Sketchcrawl Praça da Liberdade

After lunch we decided to go to the final destination to sit down on Praça da Liberdade and draw more "quietly" (if ever this is possible in the city). For me this was the most relaxed drawing time of the whole Symposium as the challenging workshops were over. In the meantime friends arrived from Switzerland and every evening we had great fun in talking art and having dinner together. With every group dinner I learned more thanks to all of my friends. Here are a few things I learned and noted down to memorize:

  

Here it is me sketching the statue. (Thank you Paula for photographing.)

Further down is a photo from the next day in order to be able to compare reality to my sketchbook. 

Below is a map where all sketchwalks are shown. I could only attend the first and the last one as I was having workshops at the time of the other sketchwalks.

USk Symposium 2018 in Porto, Day 4, Workshop 4

On the last Symposium Day my fourth workshop was held by an absolute Master of watercolour: Cheang Jin Khoo from Malaysia. 

C.J. made a one hour demo while explaining his painting and answering questions. 

The workshop was called: "Leaving white in Watercolour".

 
After that we had 1,5 hours to do our paintings of the same subject (mine above is still unfinished (and I think it will remain like this). 

I really liked the work of Chris from my workshop group with a plain colour approach and a very clear composition) and later we had a grouping to discuss the work.


After the workshop we all hurried back to Alfandega. I still did not have tickets for the raffles-draw and as Paula bought some tickets I also bought two of them. 


After this whole full day, we went for dinner with our friends and some nice ladies from Paris, Egypt, Lebanon?, Ireland,... joined us. We had a great evening together. Yet another wonderful coloured day in Porto.

USk Syposium 2018 in Porto, Day 3, Workshop 3

A watercolour workshop with instructor Shari Blaukopf from Canada: "Right up your alley - light, colour and shadow in Porto's narrow spaces..."

We had lots of fun with that one as Shari is such a great person and teacher and while drawing in the alleys close to Alfandega we met extremely nice people who asked us if we needed chairs or made music in the alleys for us. We had dust and cat-hair in our palettes. (Mine was run over by a cat) It was a sympathetic thing in those small streets... 

Shari taught us step by step her colour mixing (generous amount of fresh paint) and how to paint the subject plus shadows,  which was really good to follow. In the end she let us draw an alley but I did not finish... see below. My thanks go to Shari and the nice people of the workshop group (see below).

BTW: Paulo Mendes the Symposium Correspondent drew us while drawing in the alley. Let's see..., we are on his sixth drawing (the coloured one), and the blond somewhere in the middle is actually me! Thanks Paulo for your extraordinary work. click HERE to see Paulos drawings

USk Symposium 2018 in Porto, Day 3, workshop 2

The 2 workshop I chose was Marion Rivolier's which I liked very, very much as it was very demanding,  we worked extremely hard mixing colours and trying to draw people with fat brushes. No line work with pencil, just direct watercolour! I love her power, her expression and her style. She reminded not to draw with "an ugly-brush" (=waterbrush) but with a real watercolour brush and in the beginning we made exercises in colour mixing and with "the bad 'and" which was astonishing and new to me, but the results speak for themselves. All in all one of the best workshops I have ever experienced!!! 

USK Symposium 2018 in Porto, Day 2, Workshop 1,

 

Workshop 1: João Catarino - "Water Sounds: Shapes,  Rhythms and Patterns by the River". We did three exercises to record graphically the patterns observed in the water movements and in a second layer for example the background (could be landscape, boats, people etc.). If you are interested in this matter, please have a look at J. Catarino s website. Our workshop location was at Ponte Dom Luis besides river Douro. João told us to first observe the ever changing water rythm for a few minutes and then draw what we see. This was not as easy as that. We had to think ahead to spare out the places for the surroundings. All in all a super experience.

The photo is from the day before the workshop and I asked João permission for the photo as I am a great fan of his graphical art and his surf graphics.

USk Symposium 2018 in Porto, Day 2, early start of the day

Early start of the day after quite a short night. The yesterdays evening reception was good fun and we met lots of excellent urban sketchers and they were all very nice people. It was crazy to see all these artists at Alfandega I just knew by internet and it was impressive  to finally meet them in person all in one spot. This morning a lot of coffee was needed to keep me going and I was really excited about doing my first workshop today. But first I did the drawing you see above amongst the early birds at the edge of the Alfandega building.

Am zweiten Tag war ich früh dran, trotz des abendlichen Empfangs. Wir trafen dort tolle Künstler und heute gesellte ich mich zu den Frühaufstehern, um das obere Bild zu malen. Auf meinen ersten Workshop war ich schon sehr gespannt. Oben das Bild, das ich unter den Early-Birds an der Ecke der Alfandega gemalt habe.

USk Symposium 2018 in Porto, Day 1, Sketchwalk 1

 

I met Paula in the first few minutes before the symposium start which was great luck and we decided to do the Sketchwalk 1 together which lead to Ponte Dom Luis in Ribeira Area. I sat down behind a container just not to have all the people in my neck and began to do a direct watercolour of the ships on Douro river.  I began a bit too dark and as the group photo was announced for 17:00 I did not finish.  BTW: My drawings to come are mostly unfinished as we had to hurry a lot, not to miss out a thing...

(The beautiful blue tiles stamps on the left where carved by Sandra Biskup from USk Vienna.  Thanks I love them!)
 

Kurz bevor das Symposium begann, habe ich Paula getroffen. Das war toll, denn wir verabredeten zusammen auf den ersten Sketchwalk zu gehen, der an der Alfandega begann und an der Ponte Dom Luis endete, wo um 17:00 Uhr auch das erste Gruppenfoto sein sollte. Ich suchte mir einen geschützten Platz an der Ribeira. Hinter mir ein kleiner Container, damit ich etwas abseits der Touristenströme war. Mein Bild wurde leider etwas planlos, dunkel und wie fast alle Skizzen der nächsten drei Tage unvollendet, denn es war immer ein bisschen zu wenig Zeit - und wir wollten ja auch nichts verpassen.

(Die schönen blauen Azulejo-Stempel wurden von Sandra Biskup von USk Wien angefertigt. Was für eine super Idee!)