A week in Civita - my first fashion show

I was forewarned that the bridge to Civita is quite steep, but one thing is to know about it and another is to actually to experience it. Let's just say I was happy to have a backpack and not a big suitcase.

Once I arrived, though, all those efforts were forgotten, the charms of Civita were taking over.

Civita is a beautiful little town in the middle of the calanchi in the province of Viterbo.

This little jewel was founded by the Etruscans more than 2,500 years ago and you can see traces of that culture all over town.

It is quite remote and in constant danger of destruction as its edges fall off, leaving the buildings built on the plateau to crumble.

When I first saw Civita from the bus, I was instantly enchanted. Surrounded by the calanchi, it looked positively dreamy.

As luck would have it, a wedding was celebrated in Civita's church that day (there would be another one during my short stay), so I got to see the very interesting show of people in fancy dresses and suits sweating their way up the bridge.

I have to admit that it felt pretty good to sit in the shade while enjoying this show of Italian elegance.

The bride came up in an ape, though, so she looked fresh and lovely when entering the church.

Riccardo's and Enrica's ape was too cute not to sketch

That day I saw Stephanie again, our teacher for the week, whom I had met in Paraty at last year's USk symposium. She was one of the people I liked the most from the Paraty crowd and it was great to see her again.

The lovely Stephanie, only she's much lovelier in reality

The other participants slowly arrived one after the other. There were people from the US (mainly from Seattle), from the UK and from Switzerland.

All in all a very interesting mix of cultures, ages and skills. Just the kind of surroundings I thrive on and the perfect victims for some lunch and dinner sketches.

Show and tell in the garden with Anne, Suzanna and Marley

Drawing in Rome - pre-Civita sketches

A few weeks ago I went to Italy to attend a workshop held by the amazing Stephanie Bower in Civita di Bagnoregio.

For those who do not know her yet, she is an architectural illustrator from Seattle, an urban sketcher and a great teacher.

Before I arrived in Civita, however, I spent one day in Rome. Last time I was there in the winter and I had just taken up sketching again, but this time, as my skills have improved since, I had even more fun.

I'm not the type of tourist who wants to see everything at all cost. For one thing, I'm on holiday and don't want to get stressed out, and for another I really like to take my time discovering a place, getting lost and finding little treasures.

As I had already seen most sights on my previous trip anyway, I could be even more relaxed about it this time, and since I only had one afternoon, I basically stuck to the broad neighbourhood of my hotel.

That is how I ended up at Porta Pia, where I tried my hand at sketching the whole place. I definitely think that my skills have improved lately, if I say so myself, and I know that on my last trip to Rome I would not even had tried to sketch this, so I was pretty pleased with this little sketch.

That is so Rome: no need for a plan, you will always find something interesting to see or sketch

I cannot express how lovely it was to be able to walk and sketch in the sun. The weather in Luxembourg has been pretty erratic, so the stable heat and sunshine of Italy was a very welcome change.

In the early evening, I somehow arrived at Piazza della Repubblica, where I fell in love with the arcades and sat down for a coffee and another sketch, wondering all along if this exercise would get any easier after my stay in Civita.

I loved these huge round lamps

I didn't get to sketch these particular arcades again on my trip so I could compare, though. Maybe next time.

Sketchcrawl in a heat wave

For last Sunday's sketchcrawl, we met in Niederanven with the aim to go sketch the Aarnescht region.

However, with the intense heat wave going through Luxembourg and the weather forecast announcing storms, we decided that hiking was not the best option for the day and we stayed in Niederanven instead.

We started with a sketch in the park of the Kulturhaus, where we were sheltered from the sun by beautiful trees.

I spy a few sketchers

However, in spite of the lovely cool shade, my brain seemed to be completely fried, so I was glad when Leen offered to go sit in her garden, sip an early apéritif and eat delicious watermelon.

The usual suspects were there and we drank wine and drew each other.

Leen, Carlo, Denis, Zeta and Rosemarie

Sometimes, when your brain is fried by the heat, all you need is a quiet sketching session around a drink with a few friends.

Hot mail

In June I participated in another mail art exchange organised by Sylvie Bargain at Carnets de... vie.

The chosen theme, "Hot",was not exactly the most inspirational, but I still wanted to participate. These exchanges are a lot of fun.

Maybe it was because we had a pretty bleak and chilly month of June, but the fact is that the only hot thing I could think of at the time was the beach.

So I decided to shape my mail art as a flip flop on one side and a beach scene reflected on sunglasses on the inside of the "envelope".

Here is what it looks like closed (before I added the address and stamp):

And here it is open:

This mail art is now in Turkey.

I hope the recipient liked it as much as I liked the one I received. This cool chicken sent by Corinne from Belgium was a very welcome and fun surprise.

       

Belgians can be so creative and funny! I laughed at Corinne's interpretation of the theme. I would never had thought of that. And I will definitely try the recipe one day.

Here is the post where Sylvie lists all the mail arts from this exchange. It is always very interesting to see people's different interpretations around the same theme.

La petite France

I did my very last sketch from my trip to Strasbourg on Sunday morning before we took the train back to Luxembourg.

I used to study in Strasbourg, but back then I didn't really sketch. Which means that I had never even tried to draw the typical Alsacian houses before.

It was a lovely feeling to be back in Strasbourg for just that purpose. Granted, I mostly got to draw cars, but even just this one sketch made me happy.

So this is my first and only attempt to draw a part of the Petite France, Strasbourg's most iconic area, so far. The many tourists passing by seemed to like it. So do I.

Quai du bain aux plantes, Petite France, Strasbourg

Our group was pretty popular with passers-by and the weather was lovely, just warm enough to be pleasant.

We were even filmed by an Australian TV crew who was preparing a documentary on how sweet life is in Strasbourg. I think our group of avid sketcher was a boon for them.

If you ever glimpse me on Australian TV, let me know!

Sketching sketchers in Strasbourg

One of my favourite things in any USk event is definitely to meet people - old friends and new.

In all, there were around 200 sketchers over the weekend. Plenty of opportunities to socialize and sketch people.

Sketchers are among the best subjects to draw, as they are usually so engrossed in their work that they don't move much, so I was able to catch a few of them in action.

You might think that most of them look slightly grumpy on my sketches. But in reality it's their "in the zone" faces. So actually they're really happy faces.

Denis studying his subject

Georges had wonderfully colourful sketches

Gérard is the master of perspective

Lolo, one of the USk Strasbourg organizers. Can't thank them enough for this amazing weekend!

Dinner at Brasserie de la Bourse was great. I sat at the Luxembourgish table with a few sketchers from Paris (Marion and Christine) and one from the Netherlands (Rene).

If sketchers sketching are great subjects, sketchers eating are much more challenging. As a result you get funny looking portraits.

That floating partial face is supposed to be Tula, a friend I met in Barcelona :D

Rene, all the way from the Netherlands

Great food and great fun all around. The most difficult part, as usual, was to say goodbye.

Looking forward to the next USk event!

Oldies but goldies with the USk France in Strasbourg

Last weekend the annual national Urban Sketchers France meeting took place in Strasbourg. It is only 2 hours away by train, so of course I had to be there!

This time, Luxembourg was quite well represented, with 6 sketchers in total, Tessy, Aniela, Arnaud, Jean-Paul, Sandra and I!

The organisation was flawless. There were 2 different sketchcrawl routes to choose from every day, an official meeting place (Café Atlantico) and even a dinner on Saturday evening.

On Saturday, most of us decided to go on the "belles carrosseries" route. It was dedicated to places where we could find old cars. The day was a bit rainy, so we stuck to the 2 garages that were on the programme.

We stopped first at H.H. Services, where we stayed the whole morning until early afternoon.

There were many beautiful cars being repaired, like this Mercedes 300 SL...

Even without its "wings" it was beautiful

...or this MG PA 1935.

I wonder if it used to be a race car. For some reason, it looks like one to me.

Do not ask me any details on the cars. I am a total noob when it comes to cars.

The atelier was full of sketchers and there were many interesting subjects to choose from. The atelier was invaded by sketchers, so the tricky part was to find a spot with a clear view of the chosen subject.

Sketchers sharing their drawings everywhere

After H.H. Services, we went to l'Atelier de Jojo, which specialises in repairing old 2 CVs and other old Citroën cars.

Is there a more iconic French car than the "deuch"? I don't know, but I can't think of any.

Such a fun atelier!

I only had time to draw one car before we left for the "headquarters" at Café Atlantico, where I saw some old friends like Tula and Marion, for example.

Dinner was next, with an evening of Flammekueche or tarte flambée, miam!

More on that and the rest of the weekend in my next post.

PS: "Oldies but Goldies" is the title of one of Lapin's publications. Check it out on his website. It is really great!