I have been inspired by the photography of Genius Loci to go and visit Prussia Cove and Perranuthnoe, not along for a walk along our beautiful coastline but also to sit and do some paintings.
Continue reading Prussia Cove and Perranuthnoe
Here are my sketches from a holiday to Switzerland back in September 2016, when I travelled from Lucerne to Interlaken, then finally down to Montreux.
Sketches from my holiday to Switzerland back in September 2016, when I travelled from Lucerne to Interlaken, then onto Montreux.
We caught the 7pm flight from Bristol airport, and after our 3 hour train transfer we arrived whilst it was enjoying a mini heatwave. We quickly unpacked, walked along
Matthias Luchsinger Platz, sat under a shady tree and enjoyed the beautiful scenery of the lake with the mountains in the distance, with locals and tourists alike enjoying the sunshine.
I kept the colours muted, as the sunshine created a heat haze however I wanted to focus on all the boats on the lake.
Next morning (Thursday) the weather broke and it was raining, luckily the showers didn’t last long. We decided to do the golden trip to Mount Pilatus, which included crossing the Lake on boat to Alphnachstad, where we ascending the moutain in the steepest cog railway. Sadly the weather was very changeable and whilst it didn’t rain the clouds were coming and going.
This is me capturing the mountain summit with the little red train climbing up.
Friday and the weather was still quite cloudy but undeterred we set off on the Lake again. Whilst walking from Weggis to Vitznau I tried my fasted painting yet! This was capturing a paddle steamer as it sailed past.
On Saturday we left beautiful Lucerne and travelled by train through the Brünig pass to Interlaken, unfortunately by the time we arrived it was wet. Whilst we did do a little sightseeing I didn’t get my paints out.
Sunday and it was still raining but we headed off on the local bus to St. Beatus Hoehlen
As it was raining I tried a little sketch from the side, which was a shame because it was just so unbelieavably beautiful. Waterfalls fell down the hillside and to me looked like Rivendell.
Monday and the sun decided to show its face and we ventured up to Murren. We were rewarded with stunning views of the mountain, waterfalls and valley.
We walked from Murren to Winteregg, which has a first class view of the Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau, although by this time the clouds were covering the top of the mountain.
Tuesday and we sent off to visit the sun on top of the Jungfrau, the sun shone and it was glorious but sorry no painting.
On our way back down from the mountain we visited Wengen, and that had a wonderful view down the Lauterbrunnen valley.
Wednesday and we are back on the train travelling to Montreux.
Our hotel was right by the Lake, so whilst it was a little cloudy it was so peaceful and I sat and did this little sketch.
Thursday and we enjoyed walking along the lake by Vevey, where I again tried to capture a passing Paddlesteamer!
Later on I ventured down to the lakeside. Montreux has a long promenade and it has little hidden spots with seating areas, just perfect for another sketch.
On Friday we walked along to the Chateau de Chillon.
Saturday and time to come home, however our room had a wonderful view across the Lake so I had time for one last experimental painting, where I didn’t use pen and ink. I wanted to capture the mood of the mountains that kept disappearing into a heat haze as the day warmed up.
Well I hope you enjoyed my sketches from Switzerland, I love this country and visited three different locations, they all had a different personality, not to mention weather!
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 visit London on a fairly regular basis, and on this visit a few years ago in November, I did manage to squeeze in some sketching whilst sightseeing and here are my results.
The sketch above is of Richmond Bridge, we had planned to go to Hampton Court but hadn’t reckoned on the International Rugby match and the number of spectators, so we gave up en route and had lunch sat by the river at Richmond, where I painted this.
We then walked along the Thames footpath, via Kew Gardens and came alongside Gunnersbury and sat outside a charming pub where I sketched this. Mind it was freezing that day!
Previously we had gone on a river boat trip down to the Tower of London and I sat and sketched Tower Bridge, not one of my best! But it was exceedingly cold and I didn’t have my correct glasses on – whoops!
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.
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!
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!
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.
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.
I expect a lot of people have painted the Longships at Land’s End and I am no exception, but some results are better than others!
Here is Longships Rocks at Sunset, painted a few years ago now, quite a simple style, as it is a small painting. I originally painted it to go in my daughters dining room, as it was very red, only she moved house before I had time to give it to her!
There here is one of Longships Lighthouse and rocks that I painted from the rocks near Cape Cornwall, it was quite a way in the distance and was a quick sketch, it wasn’t an easy spot!
This is a quick sketch that I did from a photograph, painted in my studio and I turned into a greeting card.
Lastly, this one was painted just last weekend. We had glorious weather in Cornwall so we walked from Sennen to Land’s End, and this time I was sat on one of the benches overlooking Longships.
We have just enjoyed a superb holiday in an area of Cornwall – the Rame Peninsula. The Rame Peninsula is sometimes called “The Forgotten part of Cornwall’. I have certainly not forgotten in and here are my sketches from Whitsand Bay.
We stayed in a tiny chalet on Tregonhawke Cliff. Wow what a view! We arrived on a beautiful sunny Friday afternoon. It was a trek from the car park to the Chalet – and with no shops or anywhere to eat in the evening, nearby – we had a lot of stuff! However the view made it all worthwhile as could look from Looe right around Whitsand Bay to Rame Head.
Sadly Saturday turned out to be rather cloudy. The rest of the week turned out to be very wet but that didn’t bother us as we had a first class view from our Chalet, called Seagull’s Nest. The chalet was equipped with so much stuff, including picnic bags and blankets, china tea service and a choice of coffee pots! The view around Whitsand Bay could be seen from the main bedroom, as well as the lounge/dining room area.
We did venture down the path to the beach at Tregonhawke, the walk is not for the faint hearted – it was very tricky in places and even harder to climb back up. A lively beach with lots of activities for the children.
Tuesday morning turned out sunny so we ventured out in the car to explore. First stop was St Germans. If you have ever travelled to Plymouth St Germans has the most amazing viaduct and you can look down at this little village. It has been on my list of places to visit for a very long time and I wasn’t disappointed. I even had time to sketch and capture the scene.
After St Germans we were lucky enough to find a parking spot at Porthwrinkle so we could explore here. The Harbour was very nice but the sun was still shining and it was lovely to sit and sketch the scene.
Thursday was another sunny morning, so this time we decided to get the local bus and visit Cremyll. Going via Kingsand, Cawsand and Millbrook, included a lot of windy, narrow roads but we were able to sit and enjoy the views. We had a good walk around Mount Edgcumbe before stopping for lunch at The Edgcumbe Arms, where I got my paints out to sketch the Royal William Yard across the water at Plymouth.
A lovely enjoyable holiday and I hope you enjoyed my sketches from Whitsand Bay. It was so peaceful and I can highly recommend it to anyone looking for peace and quiet in a stunning location.
The weather hasn’t been brilliant lately however on a glorious sunny day we decided to make the most of sunshine and go to the Roseland Peninsula, where I did some painting at Portscatho.
I had never visited Portscatho and it is a beautiful, quiet, little fishing village, where people where swimming, fishing and out on their boats. It was glorious.
We walked along the coastal footpath and found a lovely spot to sit and eat our pasty’s and of course my paints had to come out!
Going back via Portscatho, we then headed onto Porthcurnick beach, which was jam packed with families making the most of the sunshine. We didn’t venture onto the beach itself but I did do this little sketch.
