Matera

Matera is a city in southern Italy, in the province Basilicata. It is known as the subterranean city because of its structure of ancient cave dwellings which were inhabited since 7000 BC- and some of them were left only in the 1950s. The so-called  "Sassi" make up the old city center and are famous as film sets.

Rio de Janeiro

Some of the many stunning views of Rio, Corcovado seen from the Sugarloaf Mountain and vice versa.

North of Rome

A couple of days spent near Montefiascone in the province of Viterbo, strolling through medieval towns and enjoying good company.

The blue water of Bolsena lake and a crumbling piazza up in the old town.

Then on to the strange town of Civita di Bagnoregio, sitting isolated on a volcanic plateau.

 

And Jassi, 8 months pregnant.

Biebrich

These are drawings from the last sketch outing with our local group, it was nice to see many new faces. Although we met up at Schloß Biebrich, we decided we weren´t up for that baroque monstrosity yet. We went to the industrial area instead where we sat down in a parking lot to draw. The entrance to the Kalle building drew my attention, apparently a producer of sausage casings (!) Who knew?

Later on, a more picturesque motif. Mosburg, an artificial ruin in the Schloßpark

And more industrial loveliness on the way home, a concrete factory in Amöneburg.

Querfeldein

Le chemain d´Arles

A week spent walking a branch of the way of St. James in southern France.

Landpartie

Starting early for my hike in Dahn, i draw these timberframe houses from a spot in front of the bakery, and some villagers buying their breakfast stop to take a look at what i´m doing.

Barely half an hour later is my first stop: Castles of Dahn. Castle ruins like these are quite common in southwestern Palatinate.They are made of and built on red sandstone and they seem to grow straight out of the ground.

Along the way, some strange breed of cows soak up the sun like it´s spring already.

And the way home.

Felsenland

Natural sandstone monument in the palatine forest.

Castle ruins near Dahn.

Völklinger Hütte

 Völklingen Ironworks is a world heritage site in Saarland region that dates back to 1873. The plant was closed in 1986, the year i was born. Nowadays it´s a museum, but apart from the rust it seems like the last steelworkers just left.

Photography by HC Adam

Eine Hochzeit

A wedding in the castle of Kirchberg. A view from the highest room of the castle, the "aerie", and the party in the great hall which dates back to the 16th century. These were drawn as a gift for the couple.

Dänemark

A week in Denmark, spent in Aarhus sketching with Ea and Anette, in northwestern Jutland at the beach and in Kopenhagen, mostly sightseing.

Mazury

Channeling the Symposium experience in a Laloran sketchbook that I got in Sagars Workshop, and using Shari Blaukopfs reduced palette of Alizarine, Aureoline and Ultramarine. This is the Masurian lake district in eastern Poland, where I spent part of my holiday. I drenched myself in Autan and sat by the water, the mosquitos and hornets left me alone and i was able to sketch peacefully.

Loreley

Frühlingsanfang

First day of spring.

Schnee immerzu

I´m reposting my first post to Urban sketchers, from last month, with two additional winter sketches.

It´s winter, which means it´s not exactly sketching season in Germany and I haven´t been drawing much. I leave for work when it´s still dark, and when I come home, it´s dark again, and of course, it´s terribly cold outside. So I drew these views from various windows of my appartment.

These are drawn in square sketchbook with grey paper that i hadn´t used before. It´s nice to use a darker paper to play around with negative space- but it seems the only thing i can draw in it are desaturated winter scenes!

It´s March now and you´d think spring might be coming along, but it´s been snowing again.

herbst

bad münster am stein

 

A missed train led to 40 minutes of sketching in this picturesque town.

strandbunker

during the 2nd world war, more than 5000 bunkers were built on denmark´s coasts to complete the atlantic wall, so the scandinavian coasts would be "protected" from an allied invasion.
many of those bunkers remain there more than 65 years later, sunken into the sand, crumbling...
it´s a strange architecture. all that bulky, graffiti-sprayed concrete..
again, very cold on the beach. drew each bunker in 1-2 minutes, then wandered on to the next, trying to warm my fingers inbetween sketches. no choice but to do all the cross-hatching from memory.

hvide sande #1

 

i spent some days in denmark shortly after christmas, in hvide sande on the west coast.
this is a vacation village covered in snow, seen from the dunes, and below, the swans huddling together in the town´s harbour. it was so cold that the salt water froze.

Catalan pyrenees

The Aigüestortes y Estany St. Maurici National Park is in the catalonian part of the pyrenees (about 60 km west of Andorra).

I did these drawings in july, on a three day hiking trip from Boí to Espot. We spent the whole day walking,  with me getting blisters on my feet in the process and then resting those very tired feet on the rocky ground, sleeping under the open sky. A great trip, thanks mostly to my more adventurous, persistent and knowledgeable comrade from the alpes, Erica.
I decided i´d rather take food and a sleeping bag than art supplies-so it was just a black micron and a muji brush pen, and the smallest, thinnest sketchbook  i had.
I´m glad i had to go all minimalistic on these ones.