A few days in the South of France - La Provence (part 1)

About a month ago I went on a short trip to the south of France with my friend Carole. For this occasion I decided to finally use the Moleskine Japanese sketchbook we received at last year's USK Symposium in Barcelona.

I was very unfamiliar with the format, and I have to admit that scanning those pages didn't turn out as easy as with a traditional sketchbook, but I think it was the perfect choice for such a trip. Looking through the sketchbook just gives a nice feeling of continuity to the whole trip.

I inaugurated the sketchbook with an airplane sketch, what else?

These guys were sitting in front of us and just did not stop talking. Quite loudly I should add. After a while it became comical, so I made this sketch. It made the whole experience more enjoyable.

Carole got quite mad at them at some point, haha

The first thing we did after we checked in at our hotel was visit Carole's father, Henri. He's happily retired and has been living in the Provence for a few years now.

I loved his small terrasse with the flower pots. Very "south of France".

This drawing was actually made in a few sittings. I could still have worked on it a bit more, but I think it didn't turn out too bad.

Sun at last!

Henri is quite a character. Very outspoken and loves to joke around. It was a real pleasure to get to know him.

He loves to cut out images and funny quotes from books and magazines

We went on a short walk by the river nearby where we had some time to make a quick sketch. It was lovely to be surrounded by nature again.

Henri likes to feed some of the local stray cats. He says he doesn't, but he does.

Gréoux-les Bains is a cute village, with lots of beautiful little houses and picturesque corners. Choosing just one is not easy, so I picked a piece here and a piece there.

Carole wanted us to sketch the village church. I felt like trying a very different approach from what I'm used to: I drew everything in watercolour first and added the pencil lines later.

It gives the sketch a more spontaneous look, in my opinion. I was a bit ruseh in the end, but I like the result and tried it again at other times.

You can also view it on Flickr