We recently enjoyed another trip to Switzerland, and here are my selection of sketches from Montreux and surrounding area.
We had a mix of weather, we arrived in brilliant sunshine but sadly after a few days the rain came in and was never very far away. However I did manage this sketch of Lake Geneva looking towards the mountains towering above Saint-Gingolph, including Le Grammont and Les Jumelles.
Villeneuve
It was a damp day when we visited Villeneuve on the most southerly tip of Lake Geneva. We enjoyed having a walk aorund this beautiful medieval village. I was however particularly caught by the Ile de Peilz. A tiny island just off the shore at Villeneuve with just one single plane tree left. We stopped at a cafe overlooking the lake, sheltering under a canopy I did this little sketch.
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Rochers de Naye
Wednesday was a lovely day without any rain and we caught the train to Rochers de Naye. This tiny train, that takes about 55 minutes is pure textimate to swiss engineering. It is a cog railway that is incredibly steep up to an altitude of around 2,000m. The views are spectacular over Lake Geneva, but with mountains in all directions, and the Col de Jaman mountain pass.
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It is a great walking area but we just stayed for an hour and got the train back down. Whilst waiting for the train to leave I attmpted to do a very quick painting of the mountains opposite. We also passed the Dent de Jaman, a shark-tooth shaped peak, but this painting I did later.
Vevey
Vevey is an attractive town, where the old belle epoch buildings sit happily alongside newer architecture. We visited Vevey twice, one day was quite cloudy and the second time was during a heavy rainstorm. So we didn’t see it at its best but I still managed two sketches.
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Whilst sitting by the Vevey-Marché, where the steamer boats call in. There are some beautiful buildings along the waterfront, with boats moored up, wrapped up now that summer has gone. My second sketch was painted whilst sat in a cafe sheltering from a real downpour. It was the beautiful Château de l’Aile, as viewed through the window.
As it rained a lot I didn’t do as many sketches as I would have hoped. However I did use this opportunity to practice painting rain clouds on the mountains and how they hover on the mountains.
Thanks for reading. If you would like to hear more of my visits to Switzerland read my blog post on Snow in Switzerland and my summer adventures in Sketches from Switzerlanrd.