Lipari

 

Sketched at Lipari harbour. The ship is one of the ships that provision the island with all kind of goods and transports the garbage away. 

 

Many times during the day you could see the different ferries coming and going and it never gets boring here and it is a paradise for sketchers who like to sketch different types of ships.

 

We made a lot of walks and came by a caper factory which made me sketch the stadiums of capers. First the fruit = caper, then the flower and later the cucunci which is eatable as well.

 Then the lemon is very important in Sicily. We are on a Sicilian Island!

 

Plus I can see a few pomegranate plants here which I really think have spectacular fruits.

 

There is a long promenade with a beach in front close to the main harbour and I sketched one of the lovely painted boats. Here comes my whole spread:

 Then there is also a castle hill with churches, castle and very ancient graves...

 The upper sketch is on one of the hightest points of the castle.

 

And here comes the way up. The beautiful building in the back is a church.

More of the story in a different post...stay tuned...

 

Sketching on Lipari Island - Sicily

 

After a very fast boat ride with the traghetto from Reggio di Calabria we arrived at the Sicilian Island of Lipari. There was a harbour for large boats and after wandering the city of Lipari we found another harbour on the other side of the city.

We had a lovely appartment in the city centre directly by the harbour and from our balcony I had a view.

The Island could be explored either by foot or by Minibus.
 

There are a few spiaggias to be reached by this bus, that rides many times a day.

 

The Stromboli volcano can be seen from here and a lot of boats are sailing.

Then we went further to visit a beach with a closed factory which looks like if the working people just had gone into small pause...could have stayed there forever.

Great atmosphere in this place and a wonderful beach, there is even a little kiosk in this remote place, which was not open that day. 

Maybe one of my preferred sketching places on the island. Just awesome relaxing...
 

End of part one...to be continued

Segesta, Sicily - landscape

 

Our weekly artclub featured some of my photos as prompts that week. The subject is Sicily, Segesta.

I love the place which is more inland, but you can see the sea from far. The ancient temple and the higher up amphitheatre are a must see. Here comes the entrance to the theatre:

I am quite happy with both watercolours as they convey the feel of the site.

Seascape close to Cefalu

 

Here is another seascape from close to Cefalu. The huge boulders are wonderful to paint. The stairs lead to a bathing place.

Sicily landscape - close to Cefalu

 

Dreaming of Sicily. I was the co-host of LAC at that time and sent in a few wonderful landscapes for our members to paint these beautiful landscapes around Cefalu, Sicily. 

Sizilien ist ein Traum. Vor einiger Zeit war ich Co-Autor im Landschafts-Kunstclub und sendete einige tolle Landschafts-Vorlagen an die Mitglieder, damit wir gemeinsam diese schönen Landschaften malen konnten. Hier mein Bild von Cefalu, Sizilien

Beach in Cefalu

 

 

Memory of the beach close to Cefalu in Sicily with the beautiful stones covered with extremely green moss.

Again the supergranulating colours were playing a big role in this watercolour. For painting sea, stones and sky they were very useful and I fell in love with "glacier green" which I used for the water.

Made myself a "fun-palette" with my favourites.

Roomportrait - A Hotel in Cefalú

 

What a cool room we had in a hotel-castle in Cefalú. I painted just the view of the hall in front of it. To the left there was our room. It was a very old building, but well restored.

Eine sehr coole Eingangshalle in einem Hotel in Cefalú. Ich habe nur diesen Ausschnitt gewählt. Wenn man links zur Tür reingeht, kommt man in unser Hotelzimmer. Es handelte sich um ein sehr altes, restauriertes Gebäude.

Sicily Sketchbook, Entry 5, Cefalù sights

 

 

Sicily Sketchbook, Entry 5,  Cefalù sights

We came to Cefalú by train, and it was quite a relaxing 1 hour trip. Cefalú is a real fantastic holiday destination with a beautiful beach, a wonderful cathedral and lots of old town houses, a very scenic ensemble with a mountain behind the city and a lighthouse as well as a coastal walkway on the cliffs. The first thing when we came there, was of course  swimming in the clear blue sea. By the mole I did my first sketch (just in pencil, but I will show that in the next post, when finished). 

After having had a bite I drew the terrace of our B&B as the sun was going down behind the buildings, and a fresh wind came up. I did not finish colouring.

 

The rooftop terrace is on top of a building, which used to be part of an old fort. All houses are somehow built together...

 

 

So this first day, we explored the city of Cefalù and the next morning, when adapted to the new surroundings, I had to see the awakening of the day on our rooftop terrace overlooking the sea. To the other side there was an old campanile, which I tried to draw in direct watercolour while sipping my first coffee. Our B&B used to be an old fortified palace and if you look down the terrace you can see the cliffs and the sea. 

 

The new sketchbook still feels a bit strange. It sucks in the colours much more than in my usual sketchbooks, but I expressly wanted to explore it further and will adapt my watercolour style to it.

 

I finish my todays post with this little Ape drawing.

 

...stay tuned for more to follow...

Sicily - Sicilian City - Post 1200

Dear Friends, this is my post no. 1200. Therefore I do a little interruption to the Sicily sketchbook, but stay with the theme with this larger watercolour of a Sicilian City. I am astonished how fast time went by. I will celebrate today my artpiece no. 1200 on this blog and thank you for following my creative journey. 

If you like, have a look at my youtube channel here: Bettinas Youtube
And if you still need a present for a dear person, get one of my calendars on ebay to support my art (could be sent nearly everywhere at low cost): Bettinas Art Calendar 2020

Thank you! 

Liebe Freunde, das ist mein Post Nr. 1200. Daher die kleine Unterbrechung des Sizilien Skizzenbuchs. Ich bleibe jedoch beim Thema mit diesem grossen Aquarell einer sizilianischen Stadt. Ich bin erstaunt, wie die Zeit vergangen ist, seit ich mit dem Blog gestartet bin. Heute werde ich auf jeden Fall mein Kunstwerk No. 1200 auf dem Blog feiern und danke euch, dass ihr mich auf meiner kreativen Reise begleitet habt. 

Wenn ihr Lust habt, schaut euch meine Skizzenbuch Videos auf Youtube an: Bettinas Youtube und wenn ihr etwas dauerhafteres wollt und möglicherweise noch ein Geschenk für einen lieben Menschen braucht (oder für euch selbst), kauft einen meiner Kalender auf ebay, um meine Kunst zu unterstützen (kann fast überallhin geschickt werden): Bettinas Kunstkalender 2020 

Danke! 

Memory of Sicily - Sunny day in Castellammare

The thumbnails I did two days ago, were a good base for my todays watercolour. I don't always do thumbnails, but for compositional reasons sometimes it is better to do so. I used a lot of earth tones again like yellow ochre and burnt sienna which make for a nice glow against the shadow parts.

Die kleinen Skizzen, die ich vor zwei Tagen gemacht habe waren eine gute Basis für mein heutiges Bild. Das mache ich nicht immer, aber manchmal ist es aus Kompositions-Gründen besser kleine Vorab-Skizzen von Ausschnitten zu machen. Ich habe wieder Erdtöne verwendet, wie z.B. Ocker und Siena, was in Verbindung mit den Schattenpartien dazu führt, dass das Bild leuchtet.

Memory of Sicily - House in the Green

This watercolours shows a house in Sicily in the countryside close to Trapani. It was in spring that I took the photo I used as a reference, so the spring greens with fresh leaves and the blueish mountains behind were a great fun to paint.

Mein heutiges Aquarell zeigt ein Landhaus in Sizilien, in der Nähe von Trapani. Als ich das Referenz-Foto gemacht habe war es Frühjahr, weshalb die Büsche in frischem Grün zu sehen sind, ganz im Kontrast zu den kühlen bläulichen Bergen im Hintergrund.

 

Value Sketch - black and blue

My value sketch shows only three values: The lightest, which is the white of the paper, the light grey and the skyblue as a mid-value and the black as the darkest. It was just a fast sketch with a large brush and not too much details in order to prepare for a larger watercolour. It gives me a better understanding of what I have in mind to draw and shows me if the idea I have of my future painting is to my liking.

Meine Skizze soll mir drei Farbwerte zeigen: Der hellste Wert ist das Weiß des Papiers, das hellgrau und der Himmel sollen den mittleren Wert darstellen und das schwarz den dunkelsten. Das war eine schnelle Skizze mit einem dicken Pinsel, ohne viele Details. So bereite ich mich auf ein grösseres Aquarell vor. Ich erhalte ein besseres Verständnis meiner Idee und die Skizze zeigt mir erstmal, ob die Komposition so für mich funktioniert.

Value Sketch - black

Did this value Sketch to train my eye for better value recognition and to maybe do a larger painting out of this later. This was a 15 min. sketch with a very large brush, and it was good to do a loose work that would not take too much time in between - I am a bit busy so no time for a long painting session. I liked to do those broad, fast brushstrokes. The motif was a landscape of Sicily.

Diese Skizze habe ich gemacht, um mein Auge besser auf die Farbwerte zu trainieren und vielleicht um später einmal ein grösseres ausgefeiltes Bild daraus zu erstellen. Das war eine 15 min. Skizze mit einem sehr grossen Pinsel und das hat außerordentlich Spaß gemacht. Eine lockere, schnelle Skizze zu machen, ohne groß nachzudenken war heute genau das Richtige für mich, denn ich habe leider gerade nicht so viel Zeit. Breite Pinselstriche - auf Genauigkeit kam es nicht an. Die Landschaft ist eine Landschaft, die ich in Sizilien gesehen habe.

Memory of Sicily - Old house in Castellammare

When I came by here I knew that I had to draw this house on the street corner, just because of its colours. Turquoise, red, brown and yellow parts showed through the ocre wall. All ancient paints that came through over the years which makes it to me a super-interesting building for a watercolour.

Als ich hier an dieser Ecke vorbeikam wusste ich sofort, dass dieses Haus an der Straßenecke nur wegen seiner Farben an der Hauswand super zu malen wäre. Türkise, rote, braune und gelbe Farbflächen schauten unter der eigentlich ockerfarbenen Wand heraus. Alle alten Farbanstriche kamen irgendwie über die Jahre durch und das macht für mich den Reiz aus, das Motiv als Aquarell zu malen.

Memory of Sicily - Wildflowers besides the chapel

At the edge of San Vito lo Capo you find that little chappel within a sea of wildflowers. It is the chapel of holy Creszentia and dates from the 16 century. Wild fennel is spread along the way with large yellow inflorescences and the hinterland with its mountains can be seen in the background. I used lots of yellow ocre, siena and other earth tones for this one. I tried a new to me colour, which is buff titanium DS. You can see this chalkish tone in the landscape here and there. It is a rather opaque watercolour a bit like naples yellow from the consistency side, but tends more to have a more chalk-greyish-white tone. I will test how to best use it.

Am Rande von San Vito lo Capo kann man diese kleine Kapelle aus dem 16. Jhd. inmitten eines Meeres aus Wildblumen besuchen. Es ist die Kapelle der heiligen Kreszentia und ist noch sehr gut erhalten. Der hohe, wilde Fenchel, den es hier überall gibt leuchtet mit seinen hellgelben Blütenständen und das Hinterland mit den Bergen ist in zurückhaltenden Farben im Hintergrund zu sehen. Für die Kapelle habe ich sehr viel ocker, siena und andere Erdtöne verwendet. Eine für mich neue Farbe habe ich auch verwendet und das ist das Buff Titanium DS - eine Art naturweiss/beige, das man in der Landschaft im Vordergrund hier und da sehen kann. Die Farbe ist eher deckend und verhält sich ein wenig wie Neapelgelb, aber es ist eher ein kalkig-naturweisser Farbton. Ich muss noch ein paar Tests damit machen, damit ich besser einschätzen kann, wie die Farbe einsetzbar ist.