Author: Jane

Here are some of my sketches from a holiday in Mayrhofen, during September in the beautiful Tyrol area of Austria, back when we were able to travel freely!

Click on any of the images to see a larger version.

The weather was good during the first half of our week, and the second half was a bit intermittent with some damp in the air. That proved to be great fun trying to still be able to paint!

We travelled, via the local bus, to Hintertux, where by travelling on three cable cars we found the snow! After exploring on the top of the mountain we came down one cable car to Tuxer Fernerhaus, a large restaurant area where we had warming soup and I did a sketch to capture the skiers and cable car. Then after descending two more cable cars we decided to explore the area around Hintertux and found a delightful waterfal, so out came my paints againt!

One of the, looking up the entrance of the Gerlostal valley, was painted whilst at the train station at Zell am Ziller. I had 25 minutes until the next train so I was a woman on a mission!

The last day I found a beautiful spot just on the outskirts of Mayrhofen, which was looking down towards Finkenberg and the surrounding mountains. Well it might have been spitting but I took cover under the trees and managed a quick sketch.

I hope you enjoy them as I enjoyed the holiday.

We have visited Vienna on two different occasions and the buildings were so magnificent, so grand and they are hard to grasp that in a tiny little sketch! On this occasion it was mid March and it was freezing cold, so it wasn’t easy to find the right spot to sit down to sketch, but that could be me making excuses! I was in two minds about whether I should post them or not, I don’t think they are my best work – anyway here they are …

The painting at the top shows my first attempt of the Schonbrunn Palace painted from the Gloriette, but I have got the proportions wrong.

Then I tried a closer sketches, there weren’t any seats in the middle, so this is from the side

Then I decided to focus on one of the many statues they had in the garden, plus by this time the gardeners had planted a few Pansies, which added some colour. But I still haven’t done this beautiful Palace justice.

We then visited Stadt Park and I was struck by the Kursalon, a place where Johann Strauss conducted Orchestra’s, and nowadays they hold concerts every day with a selection of his music. There is so much detail in their architecture, and again proportions are wrong.

It rained one day, so painting was definitely out that day, and the following day it was very cold, but I did manage to find a little spot at the Orangery at Belvedere Palace. This I feel was my most successful.

One of my daughters lives in the Southampton we have visited the area of many occasions but hadn’t really been down to the waterfront. On this particular visited we decided it was time to remedy that, of course I took my paints with me, this is my selection of Southampton Sketches.

It was beautifully peacefully walking through Manor Farm Country Park, in the upper reaches of the river Hamble but being early in the season there weren’t many boats about.

Weather wise it was a funny old day, warm when the sun was out but cold when the clouds came over, and as you can see from this painting dark clouds were gathering over Botley.

Bursledon

The following day we walked towards Bursledon, not quite as peaceful as the M27 runs overhead, but they’re more boats! Quite a lot were moored up at the boatyard with some owners busy preparing them for the upcoming season’s sailing.

Walking back towards Hedge End there was a very high spring tide and the ground was quite boggy, it turns out it this area is a salt marsh. It was very pretty, but there was a cold wind, so this was painted quite quickly!

Southampton Water

The following day we did something a bit different and changed our usual mode of transport travelling back to Cornwall via boat! We did a mini cruise. It was quite an experience and it turns out I am not a good sailor! But the best bit was sailing through Southampton Water where I attempted to capture Royal Victoria Country Park but of course it was moving rapidly away from me!

Sketches from a later visit

On another occasion we visited during the summer when the weather was a lot warmer!

Our daughter has now moved and we there is a lovely riverside walk along River Itchen. On this sunny day, it was very busy, children were playing in the river, families were out walking along and you could even find a shady spot under the trees.

In my eagerness to visit a local beach we visited Lee on Solent. It was actually surprisingly close and didn’t take long in the car. The beach is quite different from Cornwall but it was lovely to see all the boats out on the water.

Warsash

Another place we visited is Warsash. I don’t know what this place is like in the summer, very busy I should imagine, but on a sunny March day it was lovely. Warsash is opposite Hamble-le-Rice on the River Hamble as it meets Southampton Water.

We walked along the Solent Way, with its views across to Hamble village towards Southampton Water. This is a very peaceful spot and I can imagine in the summer the water is full of people enjoying sailing on the water.

I stopped to capture the scene, although I feel I am being a little unfair – whilst it is a shingle beach it probably isn’t as brown as I have depicted. The sun was glinting on the water and that was enough to detract from the Oil Terminals that we were looking at! It is interesting to see different waterscapes, it is such a different landscape to Cornwall.

This sketch is looking across Hook Spit, a special area for wildlife and birds, looking across towards Hamble.

My latest blog features Falmouth sketches, painted a few weekends ago we had glorious weather in Cornwall and I was lucky enough to get out and not only enjoy the sunshin

We were at Castle Beach at Falmouth – the sun was sparkling on the sea, the tide was high, people we re out sailing,  children were laughing and playing on the beach – a beautiful summers day. To make it complete I got my sketching equipment out and did three little sketches.

This was my first, looking across Castle Beach towards Swanpool and the opening of the Helford River which was busy with lots of boats out on the water.

This sketch is looking towards Pendennis Point, you can just about see the Castle hidden amongst the trees.

On this little sketch, I tried to capture the magic of the boats on the sparkling sea, but not sure how well it worked (I was working from quite a distance)!

Today I moved away from my usual cool palette and used a lot of Cobalt Blue, as shown in the sketch below, because the sky and sea were such a rich colour.

This sketch was from painted whilst sat on Gyllyngvase beach, it was on a cartridge paper sketch book, hence the lack of texture and simple lines, as the paint doesn’t blend as well.

I hope you enjoying looking at my sketches of Falmouth, as much as I enjoyed my lovely day at the beach.