Wandering through Lisbon - family and beach time

I usually spend at least a week in Portugal visiting some of my family and going to the beach in the central region of the country. This year, however, I only spent a long weekend in Lisbon, so I was not expecting to do any of these two things: see any of my family and go to the beach. So it was a very pleasant surprise when I ended up doing both.

On Saturday, I met with one of my aunts and a cousin who live in the extended region of Lisbon. I was treated to a homemade lunch (my aunt is one of the best cooks I know), then a short expedition to a beach in Ericeira followed by a visit to Mafra and ending with a delicious dinner (frango no churrasco, barbecued chicken like I only find in Portugal).

We stopped at a place called Aldeia do Sobreiro on the way. It is a place dedicated to ceramics where you can find a small miniature reproductions of a mill and different rooms showing how people used to live in the past. I couldn't resist making a very quick sketch there, the only one of the day, as I didn't want to bore my family.

On Sunday I met with one of my co-workers who was in Lisbon with a friend for the weekend as well and we went to the beach in Carcavelos. The tide was high, so the beach was very narrow and people were almost lying on top of each other. Not my favourite type of beach, but I was so happy to be able to actually go into the ocean that I did not care at all.

Carcavelos is located on the Atlantic coast, not far from where the Tagus river ends, so the water was cold, but fairly quiet, quite different from the beaches I am used to around Figueira da Foz, where the waves can be very strong and the water's temperature a bit colder.

It was amazing to be able to bathe and I had fun seeing my friends getting in the chilly water. The temperature can be challenging when you are not used to the Atlantic at all, but once you are inside it is perfect.

I had time to make a quick sketch while my bikini was drying. The lady on my left offered me the perfect framing. When I first came out of the zone, I noticed that I had gathered a few admirers, her included. Sketching is always a great icebreaker.

We ended the day at a tiny restaurant around Chiado with a lovely bottle of vinho verde.

I'm already looking forward to my next visit.

Wandering through Lisbon - sketchcrawling with the locals

I might be quite predictable on this, but one of my favourite parts of Lisbon is Alfama. I love its small streets and corners, and the fact that it reminds me of a village. That is why I arranged to meet Eduardo Salavisa and other sketchers from Lisbon at one of its viewpoints, Portas do Sol.

Before that, however, we spent some time at Largo dos Trigueiros, where we met with Pedro Loureiro and Pedro Alves. They were on their lunch break and took the opportunity to sketch with us. I was not very productive then. Between taking a quick bite to eat and getting to know the Pedros a little, I was not really feeling inspired to sketch at that moment.

After this sadly very short encounter with these two talented and friendly sketchers, Eduardo and I headed to the meeting point at Portas do Sol to start our sketchcrawl. We were a tiny group, only Zeta joined us, and headed down the stairs to our first stop at calçadinha da Figueira.

Down, down some more, we stopped at Igreja de S. Miguel where I started to sketch the view up the stairs. Three boys were playing, one of them racing down the stairs of the church on his bike. His curiosity got the better of him and he came to see what we were doing, quickly joined by his friends.

 

Gonçalo, aka Piriquito (parakeet), Vítor and Diogo were very impressed by our drawings and I sketched them, so I would have a memory of them in my sketchbook. Unfortunately, I didn't quite capture Piriquito's likeness (I aged him at least 10 years!), but he seemed to like it, specially when I added a few dots to his cap. Children are very forgiving that way.

 

After this fun meeting with the boys, Eduardo and I stopped at Pois, café, a café next to the Sé.

Eduardo showed me a few more interesting places, good bars and cafés and we finished our sketchcrawl with a beer at Café Tati near Cais do Sodré.

   

Thank you so much for this pleasant afternoon, Eduardo!

Wandering through Lisbon - unexpected encounters

I spent a few days in Lisbon last week, soaking up some much needed sun and meeting friends and family. It's always a pleasure to go back to this beautiful city with its old charm, friendly inhabitants and (usually) great weather.

I arrived on Thursday in the early afternoon and set out to do one of my favourite things: wander around aimlessly, see where I end up. The call of my stomach being quite strong, I stopped at this place called Cister for lunch.

There was a football game on one TV screen, a telenovela on another. Welcome to Portugal! :D

I somehow ended up near Príncipe Real where I saw this fascinating building. The sketch doesn't do it justice at all, but it was really beautiful.

I particularly liked the cupolas with the spikes.

 After a while, I noticed that there was an unusual amount of activity, specially in the areas of Chiado and Baixa where most shops are. Apparently I had chosen the day of the annual Vogue Fashion's Night Out to arrive.

Shops were open until late at night and there were concerts and special offers all over the city. Lisbon was buzzing with activity and excitement and there were beautiful people everywhere.

Some elegant gentleman took a picture of me while I was sketching this

I was planning to go people watching and sketching after dinner at a restaurant called Relicário near my hotel, but I got side-tracked by my friendly neighbours, a group of jolly elderly people from Bermuda.

They were Portuguese descendants and were on their first trip to explore their ancestor's original country. They were very curious about how you said things in Portuguese and I was happy to teach them a little.

I was bemused that one of their surnames was Da Silva, my mother's maiden name. I like the idea that if we were to dig far enough in the past, we would discover that we are related. The world is so small after all.

They loved my sketch and even paid for my dinner

The following day I was meeting Eduardo Salavisa and some other sketchers from Lisbon in the afternoon. I had some time to sketch the elevador da Lavra on my way to our meeting.

I love to stumble upon one of these cute yellow fellows

More on that in my next post.

Short trip to Manchester and back home

After our week in London, and before heading back home, I made a detour through Manchester, where Anne was kind enough to host me for two nights.

In such a short stay, I only got to see a few glimpses of this very interesting city, but it was a welcome change from the hustle and bustle of London.

Anne showed us around her town and we stopped at a beautiful hotel, where they let us sketch in the lobby. I played around with colours and paint to sketch the beautiful glass cupola. Not a perfect sketch, but I like the colour combination here.

There was one thing I really wanted to experience while in the UK: a typical afternoon tea. The cafe inside Town Hall offered a beautiful tea, starting with a selection of small sandwiches and other savoury snacks, to scones and delicious little cakes.

It felt great to just sit and enjoy the afternoon in that beautiful place, taking time to sketch and chat with Stephanie, Anne and Gail. I discovered that Gail and I had a more relaxed view on traveling. We both love to take it easy and just enjoy a place. No need to speed through everything.

Outside town hall, there was a jazz festival in preparation, which I tried to sketch, but really it was beyond me at that moment. So I sketched Gail sketching the place. In a way you can say I piggy-sketched the place through her.

That was all for Manchester already. Short and sweet. On the train ride back to London, I saw this beautiful lady with a striking head scarf. Unfortunately I didn't get her likeness, as she moved around a lot.

 

Waiting at the airport, I had enough time to sketch what was going on outside. I find it's a good mental preparation to go back home. A way of adjusting mentally to the end of the holidays.

There were many businessmen in the plane. I started a conversation with my neighbour after he commented on my sketch. He found the bald patch of the man in the seat in front of mine particularly amusing. What can I say? I sketch what I see...

Sketching London - sketchcrawls

On Saturday, we joined the Urban Sketchers London on Trafalgar square, where I was very happy to meet yet other sketchers I knew, besides our Asian friends. 

I was not surprised to see Martine, a sketcher from Paris who attends most big sketching events and who must figure more or less prominently in almost every sketcher's sketchbook. I know I sketched her a few times myself in the past. It is always a pleasure to see her.

KK, Pramote and Tia already at work

I imagine Trafalgar square is a popular meeting place. At the time we were there, preparations for the Busk in London festival were underway, adding a bit to the general confusion. To get more comfortable and away from the crowd, I climbed on Nelson's Column, where other sketchers were already tackling the vibrant scene.

A very relaxing spot in a very busy place

There are many statues all over the square, but this one, of the horse's skeleton, caught my attention in particular. There was a ribbon-shaped bit on which text was scrolling. I think it was numbers of the stock exchange. I was told that this particular statue was there temporarily and that artworks exhibited on this spot are regularly replaced.

Maybe it's Admiral Nelson's horse

After a quick bite, I tackled another giant of a subject, Admiral's gate. I tried out something similar to Pramote's technique, using a lot of water and dipping my watercolour pencils in water to make them nice and juicy. I felt exhilarated during this sketch, leaving behind any wish to make an exact sketch and just letting intuition guide me. I was fairly satisfied with the result and Pramote told me it was my best one yet.

Playing with accidents

The following day, Sunday, we met again by St Paul's cathedral for a sketchcrawl organised by Pete Scully, which he calls Sketching Wren's London. Pete started by giving us a bit of historic background on Wren and his work. He was very generous with his knowledge and even gave us a handout. I was sorry that we had to leave early to catch our train to Manchester.

I had time to make this quick sketch of the cathedral, sitting next to KK and Pramote. I let intuition guide me again and had a lot of fun with it. This sketch even earned me the highest praise from Pramote. He looked at it and exclaimed: "This is fun!" I couldn't be prouder of myself.

Even KK seemed a bit impressed :)

Before leaving, I walked around the cathedral for a bit and sat down to chat with Pete and make this quick sketch. I learned that Pete had been to Luxembourg in the past and would love to come back to sketch. Anytime, Pete! I will gladly guide you whenever you come.

Sketching London - Asian inspiration

One of my favourite things about urban sketching has always been to meet other sketchers, be motivated by their drive to draw and share tips and ideas for sketching to try out later.

On our third day in London, Tia and Patrick from Singapore, KK from Malaysia, Pramote from Thailand, and many other Asian sketchers arrived. Some I had met at previous symposiums, others I only knew from their sketches online.

Meeting them didn't start out well. I was just getting ready to join them in sketching Covent Garden when I realized I had lost my favourite Hero fountain pen. Most sketchers will be able to relate to that, particularly since that model is now quite difficult to find.

Seeing how disappointed I was, Pramote gave me one of his bent nib pens with lovely Super5 blue ink in it. The sun was shining again! Now I have a new toy and a beautiful memory to go with it.

In the evening we all went to Piccadilly Circus, where KK made one of his masterpieces as usual, and I tried out my new pen.

So crowded!!

The next day we all met for a day of sketchcrawling around the city, starting by Westminster Palace. I was honestly not very inspired at first, trying to test different things, nothing really working. The palace is such an imposing building (again), and we had been there already...

A bit muddies up, but I like my ghost people

Pramote kept telling me to just have fun and put lots of water and colour on the paper. Me being slightly uncomfortable with how unpredictable water can be, I started with the "just have fun" part.

So I focused on the tower and tried out a few approaches with different tools, Tombow brushpens and watercolour pencils, for a start.

             

This exercise helped me loosen up and I tackled the palace in a more abstract way again. Quick, simple and effective, I'd say. And more importantly: so much more fun!

 

We split up briefly for lunch, some people (like me) lured by the call of their stomach. Funnily enough, we all ended up at the same place: the cafeteria inside St. Martin's in the Fields. You would never guess there is such a lovely quiet place right on Trafalgar square. 

Tia & family, KK and Pramote

In the afternoon, we headed in the direction of the London Tower, stopping near the London Eye to sketch the view over the Thames after KK proclaimed with a silent nod and a cheeky smile that it was a good spot to sketch.

Panoramic view over the Thames, with Gail in the foreground

After finishing my quick panorama, I turned to find this very sketchable food truck a few metres away, which entertained me while the others were finishing their masterpieces.

This truck reminded me of the one by the Rotondes in Luxembourg

Unfortunately, the first rain of what had otherwise been a very hot week so far started falling. It was both a bit of a party pooper and also oddly very welcome.

This decidedly very Asian day ended at a Thai restaurant in Piccadilly, right across from our apartment, where Pramote knew the lovely owner, Nikki. Best Thai food in town and a very pleasant way to spend the evening!

Sketching London - red boxes, Germans and Mary Poppins

There is so much to do and so much to see in London! On the first few days we walked around to so many places that I don't actually remember in what order...

One would think that when using only one sketchbook, the problem of chronological order would be solved, but I hopped around a bit on this one, so here are my sketches in the order I think they were made.

Stephanie was very keen on sketching St Pancras station and I could easily understand why. The building is gorgeous. Made of red brick, it looks like a castle and was a bit too daunting for me - I was a bit tired of imposing buildings.

Fortunately, the station is as interesting inside as it is outside and I was immediately attracted by this statue called The Meeting Place by Paul Day. The frieze at the base of the statue caught my eye in particular. It features images from the history of the Tube and train: soldiers departing for war, people queuing, even a couple embracing while one of them keeps looking at her phone (very contemporary).

I heard the piece did not get good reviews. Not brainy enough probably. Call me cheesy or naïve, but I liked it.

At first I thought it was a tribute to soldiers who went to war

London being such a big and busy city, I sometimes felt it difficult to find a quiet place. As a tourist you just don't know where to go. Fortunately, Anne knows some good spots and she took me to Berkeley square, where I practiced painting foliage and finally added the iconic red phone booths to my sketchbook. I couldn't leave London without at least one of these lovely red boxes.

 

No trace of the Tardis, though

Covent Garden, another one of those names you hear over and over again but can't really picture if you haven't been there before, is a bustling place with markets and lots of visitors.

While I was sketching, a German guy asked me if I could quickly sketch a reproduction of Van Gogh's Sunflowers. He was participating in a friendly competition over the city and one of the tasks was to copy the painting. He assured me he was no good at drawing at all, so I helped him cheat.

So many tourists!!

At some point, Anne took me to the Court of Justice, another impressive building. We sat on a bench in front of it, and in front of some activists from Anonymous who were protesting about something.  I find it very interesting to see something that I only know from TV or the internet. It makes it much more real.

This is where I lost one of my favourite pens...

In search for another quiet corner, we stopped near Fleet street to sketch these cute buildings. The area seemed to be full of solicitor's offices, there were smart-looking people coming and going.

Chim Chim Cher-ee

The whole afternoon I had songs from Marry Poppins stuck in my head.

Sketching London - Grenich

This year I was unable to go to the USk symposium again, but I still wanted to get a little bit of the symposium vibes and meet up with some sketchers I don't usually see, so I spent one week in London with Stephanie Bower, Anne Percival and Gail Wong.

I haven't been very prolific these last few months and this was just the thing to get me sketching again.

It was my first real visit to London and I couldn't have had better company or better weather (up to over 30 °C!!).

My journey started with the usual plane sketch, nothing out of the ordinary. I gave up trying to make the perspective look accurate when I noticed that the left seat was way too narrow, so I just continued adding watercolour pencil lines and colour.

According to this sketch, the girl sitting next to me had a really long neck

After landing, I immediately went to the area where the apartment I shared with Stephanie, Anne and Gail was located and sat down at a Costa cafe while waiting for the ladies. Plenty of time to sketch the street outside and to realize that we were staying right next to Chinatown. The first "Chinatown" I have ever been to. There is no such thing in Luxembourg.

The lion on the wall should have tipped me off

The next day, Stephanie, Anne and I (Gail arrived a few days later) headed out to sketch the city first thing in the morning. We didn't need to get very far, in fact we walked about 20 metres before we stopped to sketch the pub across the street, the St. James Tavern.

To be honest, I had absolutely no plan with this sketch - but then again, I rarely do - and I just whipped out my watercolours. Then getting a bit frustrated with that, I continued in watercolour pencil and ballpoint pen. 

The buses just wouldn't stand still!

Anne, who knows London quite a bit, guided us through the city and at some point we arrived at Westminster palace. I had an "OMG I'm in London" moment when Big Ben started chiming as we were sketching the palace. Coincidentally, did you know that Big Ben is the name of the bell, not of the tower itself, which is called Elisabeth Tower.

I saw the beautiful Michelle Yeoh here! Got completely starstruck

After lunch, we took the boat to Greenwich (pronounced "Grenich", as I learned), where we stumbled upon a graduation, which I just had to sketch.

It was very interesting to see all the capes and catch glimpses of what the graduates were wearing under them. The women in particular were dressed from proper to fancy to pretty slutty. Interesting mixture of genres.

It was a beautiful day for such an occasion

I caught Stephanie and Anne in action after I finished gawking at the graduates.

Masterpieces being created

Finally, before leaving we walked up the hill to see the Greenwich line. Unfortunately the site was already closed, but we could see the famous time line from afar. The view over London from there was stunning. Stephanie started sketching it, so I tried my hand at it as well. Though for me it was all done in line work - no time or energy for more.

Panoramic views, always challenging

We headed back to Piccadilly after this, with a few sketches and quite a sunburn to show for it.

Holiday in Portugal - Urban Sketchers in Lisbon

On my last day in Lisbon, I met with a few Urban Sketchers from the area.

I was in contact with Rita Caré, who organized a meeting of Urban Sketchers Portugal at Museu do Carmo in the afternoon with whoever showed up to sketch.

She was also kind enough to forward my contact to all the members, asking if people would have time to meet me during my stay in Lisbon.

That is how I met Teresa Ruivo, with whom I spent the morning of that day sketching around Praça do Comércio / Terreiro do Paço.

Teresa sketching the other side of this view

We then sat at Café Martinho da Arcada, which has a lovely terrace under some of the many arcades of Praça do Comércio.

The waiters were very nice, too

Teresa then took me to Mercado da Ribeira, where we sketched some of the stalls and I then went for lunch at the adjacent food court. Teresa told me that the market has been revived thanks to this food court which attracts a lot of people. It was indeed a great place to have lunch, with a great variety of food to choose from.

Yummie fruit just begging to be eaten

In the afternoon, I headed to Museu do Carmo, but as I was still a bit early, I sat down to make a quick sketch of Largo de Camões.

Largo de Camões is one of my favourite places in Lisbon

I had never been to Museu do Carmo before, so it was a really lovely surprise to discover this old church with its amazing blue sky for a roof.

I was told that the roof fell during the earthquake of 1755 and was never rebuilt. Today it is used as an archaeological museum and popular meeting place for Urban Sketchers.

Every church should have a blue sky for a roof

Before leaving, we sat to do some sketching behind the museum. I loved this facade full of azulejos. So typical of Lisbon.

Three different types of azulejos on this facade

I spent great moments with these lovely people and can't thank them enough for their kindness and availability. My only regret is that I didn't get to sketch any of them. Next time.

It was time to go back home to reality and finish my Portuguese adventures of 2015 with a plane sketch, how else?

Too much time for hatching...