A few days in the South of France - La Provence (part 2)

We were on the road a lot during my few days in Provence, so there was no opportunity to do one complete drawing in one sitting, but I got to see a lot of beautiful places and quickly sketch a few scenes.

We spent one afternoon in the region of Esparron de Verdon, where I got to try my hand at piloting a motor boat for the first time. I have to say my Portuguese seafarer genes kicked in quite nicely. It was a lot of fun!

I tried to quickly sketch Carole when she was at the wheel, but it's far from resembling her.

Pretty captain stranger

Esparron de Verdon is situated next to a river. Like all the places I have seen in Provence, it is very pretty. This quick sketch was done while eating a nice ice cream.

It is located on a small hill and overlooks the river

One of my favourite sights in Provence were the poppy fields. I had never seen so many poppies together and it was beautiful! It made up for not seeing the lavender in bloom.

I really wanted to have a reminder of those fields in my sketchbook, so I tried to quickly sketch a few. Not quite the effect I was looking for, but at least I got them in!

On another short trip we went to Roussillon, where colour pigments are produced. It was my favourite place from our excursions. I loved the town with all its rich earth colours: ocre, sienna, umber.

Again, no time for a full drawing, but I managed to sketch one building next to the restaurant where we were having lunch.

The evening was spent relaxing at Henri's place. I even got to sketch Carole sleeping on the terrasse. Henri cut a picture of her face for me, so I could paste it in my sketchbook. I love how fun it looks!

Exhausted but happy!

After my stay in Provence, I left for Marseille in order to catch the train to Nice, where I spent one day before returning to Luxembourg.

As is almost custom with the SNCF, the train was 1) overbooked, and 2) delayed - a lot! What started with a 10 minute delay became 1h30! Good thing I was not in a hurry...

On a positive note, I got to know a friendly girl from Switzerland, Nathalie, with whom I arranged to have lunch the next day. There is a bright side to every situation!

Every time an announcement was made, it was to increase the delay...

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