During the International Urban Sketchers Symposium

Busy busy during the symposium. Flipthrough of the sketchbook on my YouTube channel. Some of these photos are not exactly in the right ordre! Lots of stickers exchanged during this symposium!

Back in Toulouse before the symposium

And it's good to have air-conditioning again. I never thought I'd say that, but with the climate-change-induced heatwaves we're having, even 17th century houses can't keep the heat out.

I'm not writing very much about our trip - you can hear everything about it on my YouTube sketchbook flipthrough.

A few days in Castelnaudary

We spent 4 nights in Castelnaudary, without air conditioning! It's a gorgeous little town, with lots to discover. And you can take a train to Carcassonne for a day trip too. Flipthrough video on my YouTube channel.

 

Before the International Urban Sketchers Symposium

Traveling and spending a night in Toulouse . If you want to see sketchbook flipthrough, go to my YouTube channel.

Brussels and The Hague

I never sketch much on my trips to Belgium - they are emotionally charged. I know that sketching would help, but somehow I find it hard to motivate myself, even at the airport.

On this occasion, I was also in The Hague, and I did get to sketch a bit on my train journey there. I had to change trains twice, as there was a problem in Rotterdam, and the trains were busy, so I gave up at some stage on the way!

 

Colour swatching

Rearranged my Roman Szmal watercolour pans into the 3 little palettes I have. I went for 2 yellows, 2 reds, 2 blues, a green and some darks for 2 of them, and mostly darks for the third one. Now I feel I can work with them. And I have a record of the colours in one place instead of several sketchbooks.

 

Sketch with Suhita - July

 

I was tired, and this view was so ambitious for half an hour, but we all did it. I ignored the top of the Cologne cathedral - there was enough to be doing with the people, doors, windows and arches! I would probably tackle this differently if I was there in person, but then again maybe I would be so overwhelmed that I would walk away!!

A few photos from the opening of Carrying the Songs exhibition

It was such an honour to have one of my paintings, A Thread Runs Through, selected for the exhibition Carrying the Songs in the Pulchri gallery in The Hague, organised by the Hamilton Gallery in Sligo in association with the Irish embassy in The Netherlands.

And a great opportunity to catch up with my friend Marina who now lives in The Netherlands.

 

Video - sketchbook flipthrough from our trip to Toulouse

Much easier to post a video that edit and crop all my photos of sketches done over the two weeks we were in France - Toulouse, Castelnaudary, Carcassonne, Toulouse - International Urban Sketchers Symposium.

Plus I am super busy and I don't know when I'll get a chance to post over the next week or so!

 

Circles and sound waves

Lots of things to explore, mind full of ideas. Spent the day reading about sound waves, but also thinking of how ripples form in water when you throw a pebble in. Watercolour and Artgraf. Read lots of about sound waves produced by a cello. I'm really interested in Bach Cello Solo #1 and I love this representation of it (I don't read music so this was helpful). So, yes, mind going in all sorts of directions. And I'm travelling to Belgium and The Hague next. So it will be a while before I get a chance to fully explore this.