Calabria again...jippieee!

 

So much behind in posting, therefore here is one of my favourite views from the Coastline. Love this view.

In the meantime I flew back to Calabria twice, therefore here are some of my favourite Calabria sketches I made there at my earlier visit:

 

 

 

 

...more later, Ciao.

Back to Calabria

 

I am back to Calabria and it feels like coming home. During our breakfast we still can see the fires we already saw yesterday evening. The next village is in danger, but after several flights of the firefighters airplane the fires are extinguished. The stunt flight action is over. Good for the people. Next night we saw the spectacle again on the TV.

 Had a few more minutes to sketch the flowers on our balcony...

 ...and part of the house...before it began to rain...

we fled into a beach bar and I began to make a study of the ocean water which did not turn out to my liking...

 

Ciao from Calabria. Hope I did not forget any sketch...

oh yes, I forgot one ocean study from my balcony which I like, because the water looks agitated due to the wonderful blooming effect of the watercolours.

 

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

Hello Calabria - good to be back

 

Yes it is strange to post this now at Christmas time, but it is not so long ago when I had some nice travels to Calabria. A lot of time sketching and meeting other artists.

The travels started in Lamezia where I did my first sketch (full landscape spread):

 

This time I drew the outline with a coloured pen instead of pencil as I had to hurry to get the train...

 

On my double spread, the left sketch shows a beachbar, where I had a good view to the ocean, but sketched the interior (?) and the right one shows the coastal street to the harbour.

 Above the onlocation photo.

 

This spread shows part of the harbour and I sketched this earlier this year on another visit to the city.

 

To finish this post I will show you the lovely view from a balcony to the harbour.

This one was a very fast one and probably the most fun.

 

I sketched a lot more which I might show later... I gotta go, it is Christmas.

Have a wonderful Christmas Season everybody. xxx

watercolour portrait sketch of Cesare

 

Don't know why I did not finish the sketch of Cesare, a designer and gallery owner from Calabria...maybe later...this one reminds me of the fun, the good weather and the sea.

Thank you to the kind Cesare for allowing me to paint his photo. Btw I sketched him already on an earlier visit...

I am still behind in posting all the artworks I have made due to my quite busy lifestyle;)
 

Sketchbook Sicily, Entry 11, farewell Castellammare

 

Here is my on-site-sketch:

 

The day before we left Castellammare, we visited the beach of Guidaloca (here is another sketch of the torre of Guidaloca - click) , which looks like if you are in the Carribean with turquoise, shallow waters and some waves. I enclose this following photo to show you the beauty of the surrounding:

 

Thank you to all our friends in Castellammare for the fun and the good times.

***

Btw. I got so used to that ugly plastic waterbrush, that I also did the above sketch  with it. I've never used it that much as on this trip and this is all due to being too lazy to pack more stuff. To my own surprise I used it more and more. 

I am sure that at home it will go back to sleep in one of my cupboards and wait there for another trip. 

I am really longing for using my beautiful real brush (12 or 16) again and also to work with larger paper. 

Here is my last small coloured pencil sketch of the trip.

 

We landed well in Nürnberg and were welcomed with a very tasty 3 course meal by our very good friends who live closeby...life is good. 

 

Another adventure is just around the corner which will be Sketchmarathon in Prague...;)

Sketchbook Sicily, Entry 10, Swimming Glasses, Hibiscus & Basil

 

 

This is the most relaxing part of my travels...home base Castellammare and from there to visit all the different beaches, like here on my sketch you can see a part of Cala Rossa (named after the red stones).

 

While I painted, a nice Austrian couple came by with their Kayak and I still could insert the kayak into my sketch, as at that time I was still about to do the pencil drawing.

Here is my on site photo (the kayak has already left at that time...)

Cala Bianca, which is close by is also a very scenic and an even more wild place. You have to climb a lot to get there. The day we visited Cala Bianca the water was too agitated and not as clear as it is in Cala Rossa.

 

I made a sketch of my small swimming glasses and in Castellammare I had to paint the hibiskus I saw in a garden.

Then from my balcony I sketched the neighbours rooftop terrace. A nice guy is living there, giving me a smile and telling me buongiorno every day...

I did not paint the pot with basil on his table. Everyone here has a fresh basil plant somewhere around the house or on the table or a chair in front of the house (to get enough sun). I already sketched the "holy basil" last year in this post (click to see).
 

 Here is my full double spread with three different subjects:

 As long as I am here I enjoy the excellent cuisine...let's go "...mangiare, capito!"

 

to be continued...

Sketchbook Sicily, Entry 9, Cala Mazzo de Sciacca

 

Ok lets face it, I love the sea and good food, therefore Castellammare is the place to be.

Our today's destination is Cala Mazzo de Sciacca, I would say that this is one of THE favourite beaches of mine with clear blue water and beautifully shaped stones. 

Here is my double spread of part of the bay:

And here is just part of the sea water I painted (with waterbrush), which I really like. I made it look like waves which I did by squeezing water out of the brush on top of the still moist blue colour. It turned out to my liking.

 

Now there is still missing the double spread of our second breakfast on our beloved balcony:

 

The good coffee and the different pastry, some with filling, with almonds or pistacchio are a treat. 

I am still trying to adapt to my new sketchbook paper. On the one hand I like that my paintings do not get too dark, on the other hand the colour sucks into the paper and gets a bit dull, which means I need endless washes to get a darker colour...and all my sketches in here somehow get this blueish pastel look.  

Sure that I will use up the book anyhow...but not yet sure if I will give another of these sketchbooks a chance.

...more shortly...