Castillo de Loarre and San Juan de la Pena

Posted on October 3, 2015 by Trudy

On Tuesday we visited Castillo de Loarre, a beautifully preserved Romanesque church and fortress that was started in 1071, over 900 years ago! A film called Kingdom to Heaven was filmed there, I think in 2005. This is our first view of the castle.

These are the ornate windows in the Queen’s tower. We had to watch our footing in this Medieval castle.We were surprised by this para glider overhead, then we saw many more of them as there was a jumping off spot on the mountain just behind castle.

There was an amazing panoramic view of the valley below us… and this was our view while we had a picnic lunch!After lunch we headed to the San Juan de la Pena Monastery. On the way we pass Aguero, a little village nestled at the base of dramatic eroded stone cliffs. We would have loved to stop and explore, but there just isn’t time. I thought three months would be so much time but there is so much to see everywhere that we have to pick and choose.

The new monastery has an interpretive center built over the old ruins. It is the modern building to the right in the photo below. It is a huge long building with a glass floor to view the excavated ruins below. I find it rather unnerving walking on a clear glass floor!

Then we go below and walk through part of the excavations. There is also another enormous building with more ruins and figures to walk through.

We catch a bus to the old Monastery which is sheltered under a bulging rock. It was founded in 920 and the Holy Grail is said to have been kept here to protect it from the Muslim invaders. There is a replica in the chapel.

The cloister has beautifully carved capitals with scenes from the Bible.We have a bit of time before the bus comes back to pick us up (there is no where to park near the Monastery) so I start a sketch.

On the way home we drive through several long tunnels that cut right through the mountains. This one was over a kilometer long!

Giants and Dragons

Posted on September 18, 2015 by Trudy

There are so many incredible buildings in Barcelona that I have to force myself not to take too many pictures of them, but I am warning you, there will be a few… We happened across an exhibition of motorbikes as we were walking, so stopped to have a look.

I stop for a little rest on one of the many fantastical bench/street lights along our route.

One more building…

Bob checking out one of the many book stands that line over three city blocks. Lots of very old books, magazines, and papers of all kinds.

This reminded us of when our oldest daughter was four and chased the pigeons in Venice.

We watched the parade of the city’s Giants. It was so much fun and they looked so animated, twirling and dancing in the street.

Of course I loved the dragon!

More giants…

After the parade we headed back to the Barcelona Cathedral to watch a competion of three choirs, from the Ukraine, Slovania and Lithuania. Here is the Slovanian Choir. It was lovely to sit in such a beautiful Cthedral listening to beautiful voices.

After the choirs competition we catch the Metro for Barceloneta Beach to watch a fireworks competition. Tonight it was the Balearic Islands. We sat on the beach and this is a bit of what we saw. This is all part of the Mercé 2015 Festival.

Finally, a sneak peak at a life drawing class….

Parc de la Ciutadella and Life Drawing

Posted on September 18, 2015 by Trudy

This morning I was very tired so we had a much needed quiet morning, and then after lunch headed out to find the Parc de la Ciutadella. A young Antoni Gaudi helped to design the very flamboyant Cascade Fountain which turns out to be the main attraction of the park.

This Baroque fountain is very impressive and has winged golden horses with serpent tails rearing over the waterfall.My camera is acting up, not always focusing, taking weird pictures on one of the settings. I am wondering if I will need to buy a new camera before the trip is over?

This is the Castell dels Tres Dragons, which is now a Natural Science Museum but it was roped off and not open. Neither was the Hivernacle and Umbracle (a wooden slatted greenhouse) and the other Natural Science Museum. That was a bit of a disappointment, but it was a nice walk around the park anyways.

We head back towards the Old Town to check out the Merkat de La Boqueria near La Rambla. We walked down La Rambla last night, this is the famous Barcelona street, comparable to The Champs-Élysées in Pars, with hordes of tourists, and the Merkat (don’t you love the spelling?) was just closing. We came back to check it out today. We look for somewhere to eat but it isn’t easy for me. I have dietary restrictions so no gluten, dairy, egg or soy, which is in pretty much every Spanish dish! Finally found a Wok While you Walk which made a stir fry that I could have. There would be lots to eat if I didn’t have these restrictions and it is a bit hard passing all the pastry shops, they look so very yummy.

These sausages looked very interesting, and the meats were very fresh and nice looking but also very expensive. We saw one type of roast that wa 99€ a kg! Of course there were some ‘different ‘meats available. The fruits were spectacular and beautifully presented.

There were hundreds of these little photographed tiles that were assembled together to make a mural representing Moments of Freedom.
The sun lit up the steeple of the Barcelona Cathedral as we passed this street. Remember what I said about something to see every which way we look? I asked these policia if i could take their photo and they said yes, but the one with the machine gun turned away so he wouldn’t be in the picture. That wouldn’t stop me from getting the photo I wanted, so I crossed the street, zoomed in, and took this photo instead. It is still strange to me to see machine gun toting police. We head back to the Life Drawing Meet Up location and after entering a very ordinary outer door this is what we saw! The Meet Up was up on the fifth floor, a beautiful big apartment turned into an art studio/office.I had a great time at a Life Drawing Meet Up last night. It was a session with a Pin Up Girl theme, and Ana, our model, was excellent, a true pin up girl! Here are a couple of my drawings. I felt a bit rusty as I haven’t been drawing for the last month or so, but it was a lot of fun and a good kick start to holiday drawing.

These are three and five minute poses

Drawing on Holidays

Posted on January 31, 2015 by Trudy

I was travelling from Nov 11 until December 26th last year. My husband and I visited family in Jasper, AB, Revelstoke, Vancouver, Vernon, BC and Portland Oregon, USA, and we drove to Northern California to see the Redwood trees.

I love trees, especially really big old trees and the Redwoods were incredible. Some of the trees we saw were 2000 years old! The weather was a bit rainy and cool but it really didn’t stop us from hiking and sightseeing, and of course it was great to see our children, who for some reason have all moved far from home…

I felt very small and insignificant among these giants, and very fortunate to be able to stand among them.

I had my drawing stuff with me but it was difficult making time for art on this trip, the main focus was visiting family. I did manage to attend a life drawing session in Portland at Hipbone Studio, hipbonestudio.com, which is a great life drawing studio. Jeff, the director, replied promptly to my email inquiries and welcomed me to the studio when I arrived. I will definitely try to attend a few more sessions the next time I am in Portland. Here are a some drawings from that session.

I am still playing around with water colour and pencil gestures, some are more successful than others but they are fun and help me loosen up. These were two minute poses, so one minute for the watercolour and one minute for the drawing. The drawing below was a 30 minute pose.

We spent a week in Seattle and I was able to attend life drawing there as well. The internet is an invaluable tool for locating these sessions in a new city. I really don’t know how I would have found them otherwise. Even with internet assistance it is still a challenge finding classes that fit our holiday schedule and aren’t too far from where we are. I do think that it is definitely worth the effort though. I tried to attend a session Saturday morning but after getting up very early, and walking forty minutes to get to the gallery I was met with a note on the door that the session was cancelled. That was very disappointing, but I came back the next morning, as the organizer for that day had replied to my email inquiry, confirming that there was indeed a session and that I would be welcome to attend. It was held in the basement of at a the Art/Not Terminal Gallery and was a great facility, with lots of room, lights, and easels.

http://www.meetup.com/SeattleFigureDrawing/events/219784514/ Some of the regulars made a point of coming over to say hello which was really nice. There were a lot of very good artists here, and I saw some really interesting work. Unfortunately my drawings weren’t all that great. I struggled with proportion with most of the poses. Funny how some days it is just harder than others. This is about the best of the bunch.

And my New Year’s Challenge? Well, so far I have managed to draw every day. I did miss a couple days, but I did double the next day so I think that counts. I am attending Monday life drawing at Harcourt House and I have found two very useful resources on the internet. The Croquis Cafe, http://www.onairvideo.com/croquis-cafe.html and New Masters Academy, http://www.newmastersacademy.org/ both offer free online life drawing sessions. Check them out if you want a great life drawing resource. It is not quite the same as having a live model but it is almost as good. I bought a little gizmo that hooks my Ipad up to the TV so the images are quite large and it is easy to draw from them..

So What’s Next?

Posted on January 2, 2015 by Trudy

It is hard to believe that it has been almost three months since I was in Paris and last posted anything. Because I tried to cram as much as I could into the last few days in Paris I was pretty tired by the time I boarded the plane home. Then once back home it took at least two weeks to adjust to ‘real life’. I have to admit I missed Paris and I especially missed drawing every day, having the luxury of so much time to myself, and being able to do whatever I wanted to do whenever I wanted to do it. Being in such an amazingly beautiful city that celebrates history and art was a wonderful experience, one that I hope I will be able to repeat someday soon.

So what’s next? I need to find a way to incorporate a bit of my ‘Paris life’ into my life at home. Finding balance in one’s life is a challenge many, or perhaps most people face. I have a wonderful family and friends and I want to have time for them but I need to carve out space and time for being creative on a regular basis, time for myself. Ideally I would be working on making art every day, or at least most days.

I started that process by attending life drawing sessions twice a week after I came home. We have a great artist organization In Edmonton called Harcourt House that offers life drawing sessions three times a week. harcourthouse.ab.ca/ I would like to continue attending two or three times a week. Two of the sessions are from 7:00 to 10:00 pm which is kind of late for me, but I am going to do my best.

Here are some drawings from my Harcourt House life drawing sessions. I decided to try drawing in pen and ink to change things up a bit. I used a fountain pen with black ink for the first three drawings.

A 15 minute pose,

and a 20 minute pose.

This pose was only 10 minutes which is a bit of a challenge with two models.

This 30 minute pose was drawn with a Bic Black ball point pen, which gives a completely different mark than the fountain pen. It is almost like drawing with a pencil, changing pressure while drawing varies the darkness and width of the line. It is great inexpensive drawing tool. A box of 12 pens is less than three dollars.

I also want to post regularly on this blog, probably not daily, but perhaps once or twice a week. I think it will morph into more of an art blog, with occasional travels included. I am not sure exactly how I feel about keeping a blog, still struggling with the idea of putting myself ‘out there’ but I have had such positive feedback from so many people that it has encouraged me to continue, at least for now.

I have fallen behind responding to comments, but I will get that taken care of in the next couple of days, so take a look if you have left a comment. I do love it when people comment on the posts and I do my best to respond to all of them. Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to leave their thoughts.

It is the beginning of a new year, with all the promise and possibilities that brings and you may be wondering if I made any New Year’s Resolutions? I did – my resolution is to draw everyday. Yesterday I was about to go to bed when I realized I had forgotten all about drawing, and on the very first day! So at 11:30 I sat down and did a half hour of drawing but I must admit it was a real struggle. I haven’t been drawing very much the last two months with travelling (more on that later) and it showed. It didn’t take long to lose the facility and confidence that I was starting to feel while I was drawing daily in Paris.

Did anyone else make a New Year’s resolution? Was it art related?

All the Best in 2015!

My Last Full Day In Paris

Posted on October 12, 2014 by Trudy

I decide to go back to the Louvre today to do some drawing but on arriving I discover that the first Sunday of the month the museum is open to everyone, so it is absolutely packed, wall to wall people! Certainly not conducive to study and drawing so I head over to the Eugene Délacroix museum on the Left Bank instead.

On the way I stop in at Saint-Germain-Des-Prés, the oldest church in Paris. There are marble columns inside that date from 512 AD. The church has been repaired and enlarged over the centuries and is an example of Early Gothic and Romanesque styles. The church as I saw it today was mostly built in 1163 but it is once again in need of repairs and restorations.

This is the view from the north west corner and the sculpture of a head in the bottom right of the picture is by Picasso.

The view from the front door. This church was beautifully painted with many stained glass windows high above the church floor.

The pillars and columns are covered in painted designs…

and I also loved the pillar’s beautiful bases.
I was surprised to see that one of the stained glass windows had a small part that opened. It was very high up, so I have no idea how they get it opened and closed.

A bust and chandelier were nicely silhouetted against this window.

The colours are incredible. Stained glass windows need light to show off their beauty.

This picture is a bit dark, these cathedrals are always quite dark inside, but it does show the windows that encircle the church. Just around the corner from the church and down a little side street is the museum I am looking for.

Here is the entrance to the Musée National Eugène Dèlacroix’ which contains his home and studio. One of the fascinating things about Paris is the way a door will open onto a courtyard or garden and offer a glimpse into a secret place. You just have no idea what might be behind one of those big old doors.

This is a palette that Delacroix is thought to have given to Henri Fantin-Latour who, like Délacroix prepared his painting palette with great care.

Dèlacroix’s studio had many of his paintings and lithograph prints and in the house there were many lithograph prints with their original stone printing plates. He had the studio built to his specifications, with huge north windows and skylights.

Here is a view of the studio from its private garden. The garden has been recently restored, under the supervision of the gardeners of the Tuileries and due to the generosity of a donor named Mr. Kinoshita. There were lists of the plants purchased and the work carried out in Délacoix’s archives so it has been faithfully restored, and is a beautiful calm oasis in a busy city. His home is in the building on the right of the photo, it was quite large and well appointed.A view of the garden looking from the studio. I decide it is time to think about heading home and walk from here towards the Louvre, as I want to stop at their bookstore and a couple other shops nearby.

There are some sights that are very definitely Parisian. Do you notice all the parked cars?

I have no idea how the drivers here manage to park in such tiny spots, or even how they manage to get out of them, but they do! It is quite something to watch.

I pass some very interesting looking shops, but as it is Sunday they are all closed so I take some photos through the windows. Too bad, or maybe good, as I am sure I would have found some fascinating item that I would have wanted to bring home.

All sorts of curious and interesting things.

This window was intriguing, especially in light of all the figure drawing I have been doing.

I snap a couple last photos and head home to get packed and ready for my flight home tomorrow.

Me and the Mona Lisa!

Here are my metro drawings from the last couple of days.

Thursday’s Drawings

Posted on October 3, 2014 by Trudy

I wish I could say I did my best drawings on my last session but I struggled for the first part of the day. Our model was an older fellow and he was a bit fidgety which I found distracting today. I switched over to watercolour washes and quick line drawings during the last few poses and it went better.

Our model in the afternoon brought props, which can be interesting but it can sometimes make drawing more difficult if they hide the neck and shoulder area. She was a great model, no fidgeting or moving about at all.

And finally another set of metro drawings. The last few days the cars have been pretty packed so drawing was sometimes impossible. I had to be content with people watching, and there are always interesting people to watch on the metro, or anywhere in Paris, for that matter.

Saying Goodbye to Académie de la Grande Chaumiére

Posted on October 2, 2014 by Trudy

Today was the last day of drawing at the Académie de la Grande Chaumiére, and I felt quite sad when I left. I really loved the time I spent here, and this week I have had several conversations with some of the artists drawing there. I guess it took a while for me to feel comfortable enough to do so, and today several people came and initiated conversations with me, which was really nice. Here is ‘my spot’ in the studio

I came back for one final look around before heading to the Musee d’Orsay. The stools get stacked at night so the studio is ready for a painting class in the morning.

I am really going to miss being here. This intensive life drawing experience has convinced me that I need to do this more than once a week when I am home. I often didn’t even manage to go every week, but I am determined to change that.

I made my way to the Musée d’Orsay, which used to be an old train station and now is the home to an impressive collection of art, especially the works of the Impressionists and the Post Impressionists.

The museum is open till nine tonight so I have almost two and a half hours, which isn’t all that much time. Two of the floors of the museum were closed for renovations, which in a way was good, as there was less to see! There are a lot of Monet’s paintings here. One of the things I realized as I walked around was the sheer number of paintings these artists produced, and this is just one museum, their works are in so many other museums around the world. It shows that it is essential to actually make art if you want to get good at it. Completing two or three pieces a year just isn’t enough to make a difference in the quality of your work.

Some of the paintings are surprisingly small and then there are those that are vey big! I managed to see most of what I was interested in, but realized I could easily spend at least a couple of days here studying the work more closely and doing some drawings as a way of studying as well.

My focus this trip was life drawing, but I am thinking that I could very easily come back and spend more time in the museums in addition to the life drawing. Maybe one day in the not too distant future….

I discovered that it is possible to go out on the roof of the museum and take some pictures. It was getting dark but they give an idea of the view. Here is the Louvre across the Seine, and Sacre Couer in the distance. You can see that it is definitely on a hill!

I asked someone to take my picture, so here I am with the Louvre behind me.

All too soon it is nine and the museum closes, so I head home. It is late and I am busy drawing on the metro and I miss my stop! I have to go quite a bit further to connect with a line than will take me home and it meant many more flights of stairs and a long walk, probably two blocks at least, through underground tunnels until I got to the station I needed. I counted stairs today and on the trip to the Academié there are over one hundred stairs to climb or go down, and that is just one way! And it is also probably the least number of stairs of all the trips that I make on the metro. No wonder there aren’t many overweight Parisians!

I took this picture in a mirror on a corner, (so people don’t crash into each other? ) and didn’t realize there were lines all over my face till now! It is after midnight, so I will post the last of my drawings at the Académie tomorrow morning when I am not so tired and there will be better light to take the pictures.

Scary Metro Ride Home

Posted on September 30, 2014 by Trudy

Tonight coming home on the metro about 8:00 I had an rather unsettling experience. I could hear someone speaking very loudly and than a series of loud bangs. Soon I see what it is all about, a very large, very upset man is walking through the metro cars yelling and slamming shut all the vents at the top of the windows. He is either drunk or deranged, perhaps a bit of both, to judge from his appearance. He is strangely dressed with all sorts of things tied into his hair and his pants appeared to have not much of a bottom in them, his bottom was quite visible. To make matters worse he stepped into the area between me and the passengers facing me and almost fell on the lady beside me!

I was worried he was going to stay here, but he moved on, slamming more window vents. Everyone looked a bit upset, people were looking at each other with raised eyebrows or other facial expressions that clearly showed they did not like the situation. A few minutes later he is walking back the way he came from, still slamming windows, as some people had opened them after he passed by. This time no one reopened the windows!

He disappeared towards the back of the train and then a whole lot more people got on, so I figured he would not be able to make his way back to where I was sitting. This is honestly the first time in Paris that I have felt uncomfortable, or worried about a situation. In hindsight, I think the best thing to do would have been to get off the train and wait for the next one, but I was rather shocked by the situation and didn’t think of this until after it was all over.

I did do some drawing on the metro today, but wasn’t able to do any after this incident. I actually got a terrible headache, just the stress of it all I guess.

Then when I arrive at the metro station at the end of my street there are a whole lot of metro security and they are in a semi-circle around a man who is wearing an old jacket that says ‘Security’ on the back. He has a very big muscular doberman and it appears that he wants to take the dog on the metro? Not exactly sure, but the dog is wearing a muzzle and he is getting agitated, as is the man, who appears to be trying to explain something to the metro police. The man ties the dog to the exit booth, so the metro people have to open a special gate so people don’t have to go through the booth.

I decide that I need to get home and shut the door on all this! I even checked the internet to see if it is a full moon, but it isn’t, so can’t blame it on that.

There is a soccer match on tonight that Paris is playing in and they appear to be winning as there is a lot of cheering and noise periodically. I couldn’t figure out what all the noise was about but when I went out to get a few groceries I saw a bunch of men standing outside and inside the cafe on the corner. I go see what they are watching on TV, turns put to be soccer, and I ask who is playing. A man tells me, and says Paris was up by two points. That was almost an hour ago and there is still lots of noise every now and then so I assume they are still in the lead.

Anyways… I attended two life drawing sessions today and then went for drinks with my two new friends and met a friend of theirs as well. This gentleman is an American who came to visit Paris with his wife for three months and is still here, more than a decade later. That seems to happen to people when they visit this city!

Here are a few of my drawings from today. The first model was older, probably at least my age, and very thin, so interesting to draw.

I could see bones and musculature very clearly, so I concentrated on trying to sort those things out, especially in the neck and collarbone area, trying to sort out the shapes and shadows in this area. They are over emphasized a bit in these drawings but I was concentrating on a study of bones and muscles. This model was wonderful for that.

Our second model was rather voluptuous, so quite a contrast from the first session.

Sorry for the long rant about the trip home, I think I just needed to talk about it. Thanks for listening.

Drawing In The Dark

Posted on September 27, 2014 by Trudy

Today was a very full day. First I went to a four hour life drawing class at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière.

My drawings at the Académie were kind of hard work today. As is often the case when I have a day like this, the quick five minute poses turn out the best. I horribly overworked everything else.

I hurried home after class, and had a half hour to put my feet up, grqb a bite to eat, and get ready for the ballet.

The sun was starting to set when I arrived and the light was catching the golden statues on top of the Opera Building. There are always a lot of people milling about, taking pictures, or just sitting on the steps soaking up the atmosphere. It was pretty neat getting to walk up to the big front doors, gain admittance, and walk up that grand staircase.

It wasn’t all that easy to find my seat. Turns out it is behind a locked door with no door knob, that needs to be opened by an attendant. I am sitting in a beautiful red plush box seat!

That was a surprise. I knew I had a railing in front of me, but I assumed it was just a wooden railing because there would be a walkway in front of it, or something similar. I feel rather regal, I must admit. I wonder who else has sat in that very same seat over the years?

The painted curtain rises to reveal a red velvet looking curtain.

The Opera Garnier, also known as the Palais Garnier, was completed 139 years ago in 1875, and is now the home of the Paris Ballet. It holds about 2,000 people and is pretty much sold out most for every performance. I was very lucky to get such a good seat the day before the show, there were only a few seats left. There are benefits to travelling solo!

The Chagall Mural and crystal chandelier are stunning! Actually the entire place is stunning. The pictures don’t do it justice at all.

I took my pen and sketchbook with me and drew in the dark. I couldn’t see a thing so I had no idea what I was doing until I could take a look when the lights came on at intermission.

The first half of the performance was very traditional so there were often dancers posed in the background for a few seconds, which made it a bit easier. Although I was fairly close to the stage, about a third of the way from the stage, the dancers still looked still fairly small. I am so glad I didn’t get a seat further back. Sometimes during this performance all the dancers were on stage at the same time, quite the spectacle!

The second half of the performance was very contemporary, and the dancers didn’t stop moving for a second! I was pretty sure these drawings were just going to end up as scribbles, but I think they actually still give the feeling of dancers.

It was a great evening, watching the ballet and trying to interpret what I was seeing on paper, in the dark!

The Opera Garnier was very beautiful by night. I think I am going to have to take a bus ride at night just to see the lights of the city.

I also managed to do some more metro drawing today too, but people kept getting up and leaving.

I was a bit nervous about taking the metro home so late and thought for a while about the best route to take, but it was quite all right. I didn’t get home until 10:45, definitely the latest I have been out so far. I may even try going to see the Eiffel Tower all lit up at night, now that I know I can get myself home after dark!

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Travel, Art, Drawing, PaperArts

Tag Archives: Drawing

Castillo de Loarre and San Juan de la Pena

Giants and Dragons

Parc de la Ciutadella and Life Drawing

Drawing on Holidays

So What’s Next?

My Last Full Day In Paris

Thursday’s Drawings

Saying Goodbye to Académie de la Grande Chaumiére

Scary Metro Ride Home

Drawing In The Dark

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