Belated accounts

I have been remiss with publishing my sketches form the last Urban Sketchers' sketchcrawls, so here they are now.

In December we went to the Christmas market, which is slowly becoming a tradition of ours.

The Christmas market in the capital has grown a lot over the years an can now boast three main locations. This time I focused on the small ice skating rink on Place Guillaume II. The day was wonderfully sunny and the rink was full of people.

A mulled wine at a nearby café surrounded by friends were the perfect end to a lovely aftenoon.

In January we went to the Mudam. I was very pleasantly surprised at the big turnout: 17 people came to sketch with us this time!

It was the last day of the Wim Delvoye exhibit, an artist that has already been shown at the Mudam several years ago. Here are a few of his works. Tattooed pigs (I have mixed feelings about them, but they looked so friendly I couldn't resist sketching them).

One of his Cloaca machines.

I'm not sure these metal trees were part of his exhibit but I really liked this view, specially with two of my fellow sketchers in the background.

A leisurly stroll around Walfer

I live in a municipality, or commune, called Walferdange. It is adjacent to the capital and boasts its own small shopping centre, spa and cultural centre with sports fields and even part of the university of Luxembourg.

Before the freezing temperatures started, I decided to go on a solitary sketchcrawl to explore Walferdange, or Walfer as the locals call it, armed with a fountain pen filled with ink and a small sketchbook.

My stroll first took me to the local train station, or rather to the Walfer Kulturschapp with the train station in the background.This place looks almost like an abandoned shack and not so much like a place for culture, which is partly why I like it. I love when buildings are re-purposed, specially if it is for culture.

The function of this building was a mystery to me for far longer than I care to admit

Next stop, the Prince Henri cultural centre with its football (or should I say soccer?) field. As chance would have it, a football game was taking place that afternoon. I wasn't curious enough to find out which teams were playing, but it gave me the opportunity to see the place in a more lively way.The teams were young, the players all teenagers, and the spectators probably mainly family and friends of the players.

Unsuspecting spectators being spectated on :D

Walfer has several beautiful mansions and other interesting older houses, a real treat to sketch. I chose to try my hand at this one, mainly because it was on my way home, but there are several other interesting ones, which I will definitely sketch some other time.

I will have to organize a sketchcrawl around the commune sometime once the weather gets better.

A journey through time at the Tramsmusée

When you look at old photos of Luxembourg-City you may be surprised at finding out that there used to be trams all over the city. Unfortunately they were completely removed in the 1960s in favour of buses, which were more fashionable and more economical at that time. I love trams, so I can't help feeling that the city lost part of its character in favour of being more mainstream and modern.

So it was with some curiosity that I participated to latest urban sketching session organised by LUCA at the museum of public transportation, commonly known as "Tramsmusée".

In a small room, you can go through the evolution of public transport in Luxembourg, with one example of electric tram, horse tram, tram coach, bus, etc. on display. There was even a bus just like the old school buses that used to take me to highschool. The common colour to all is a dark, almost indigo, blue with creamy yellow borders.

Nowadays there is not just one colour of bus. Depending on the model, the operating company and even possible advertising they can range from white to red to rainbow-coloured and the occasional old-fashioned dark blue reminiscent of the ancient trams. 

 

At the moment there are construction sites all over the city, the biggest project being... to reintroduce trams to replace a big part of the buses. They say that only idiots don't change their minds, but I find it a pity that we lost the historic trams and their charm, which cannot really be replaced by modern models. 

 

It would be quaint to see a few old rickety trams run through the city, like Lisbon and its yellow trams. Maybe they will use the old carriages on special occasions. I would definitely be in line to take a ride in one of them.

InkTober 2016

So I tried the InkTober challenge again this year. I wanted to do the same "one drawing from imagination" thing I did last year and it started out pretty well...

... until it didn't anymore.

A combination of having to travel abroad for work, getting a cold and feeling generally uninspired (for a few months already) made me accept the fact that this year's InkTober month would only have 11 days for me.

This made me realize that I had probably put too much pressure on myself and that sometimes, in order to not lose joy in something you need to let it go for a while. Which is also why I haven't been posting much lately. I'm hoping that phase is slowly coming to an end now.

Here are my InkTober drawings for this year. I hope I'll do better next time.

You can see all my past InkTober drawings here. 

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.