I was in Cannes yesterday waiting for a train and had half an hour to kill. So I went to a square next to the Palais des festivals where the stars come for the film festival. This time the stars were 2 beautiful horses mounted by policemen having a drink in the local fountain square.I noticed that each horse was wearing at its rear a bag to prevent the manure to fall down on the pavement : I had never seen a horse”nappy” before!
While waiting to meet my friends at the market this morning, I drew this scene from the benches next to the café in Valbonne square. I completed the drawings with colours at home as I did not have enough time to finish it off.The 4 standing characters where looking intensively at something I could not see from where I was sitting; and the mother at the table came around and sat next to me to use the bench as a changing table for her baby ! Not the scene I wished to paint…
We had a lovely morning on the Cap d’Antibes yesterday.The weather was hot and sunny. I took this time a parasol to cover my sketchbook page not to be blinded by the white of the paper plus a sun hat and no sunglasses so I could see the real colours.
Morning at the beach last Sunday in Antibes : I started to sketch people although they were moving all the time, some exhibited longer “pauses” allowing me to draw them as fast as I could. The woman and the man standing seemed to be in a very animated discussion. Although I could not hear them from where I was, judging by their body language, the subject was rather serious !
Last week in Mandelieu, the water temperature reached 25°C !. I chose to sketch only 3 characters , 1 woman reading in front of me and 2 anglers at the back. As I did not have any salt with me, I took some sand and poured it onto the wet watercolour for the sandy bit to make some texture… The result was disappointing because the watercolour dried too quickly and the sand was not absorbent enough for this technique. Another interesting trial was to paint with my sunglasses on all the time. The result is a painting with stronger and darker colours.
My beach set-up, you will see the result in the next post… see you very soon !
Visiting the town of Thun during my holidays in Switzerland, I saw this traditional charming town house and sketched it afterwards onto my moleskine book.The town itself is a delight for the eyes and I could have spent several days sketching there. So much to see and so little time… But my camera will allow me to do more paintings in the weeks to come.
I re-visited Saignon, a hill top village in Provence and decided to do a sketch of the Church where I got married . The sun was very hot that day and to be in the shade sitting on a bench at the back was a more comfortable option. Although the front porch of that church is very impressive, I found this point of view unusual and interesting.I painted on my moleskine sketchbook and used a small travel palette.
This is a beautiful cottage which belongs to a family member. The location is North of the Loire Valley famous for its wonderful castles (Chambord,Chenonceau,Amboise,Cheverny…)and its wine (Chinon, Vouvray, Muscadet….)
Hobby Sketcher 