One Sketch #20) Street traders near Kaunas Railway Station (Saturday 14th April)

So, yesterday my sketchpedition to Kaunas ended. I'd already planned the journey to the airport the night before, and decided that ideally I wanted to leave the hotel at 8, and that at the latest I needed to leave at 8:30. I was ready by 7:30, so that was it, I was off.

This gave me actually a good three quarters of an hour between arriving at the Railway station, and catching the bus to airport just outside it, and so I took a wander towards ton. Just round the corner I saw these guys. This wasn't a market, they'd just placed their goods on the pavement and were selling them to anyone who seemed at all inclined to buy.

It's nice from time to time to try to catch figures in poses. There's three distinct pairs of figures here. Each pair was done very quickly in one go, which means that this exact scene never quite happened - it's a composite sketch to that extent, although still faithful to the scene itself. Also I did the filling in of shapes after I'd done the outlines.

Life passes,
In all shapes and sizes.
My life is here
On the pavement before it
And I offer it to you
For Euros.

* To see ALL of my Kaunas Sketches , use the link on the right to visit my sister blog, Sketching Around Europe

One Sketch #19) Laisves Aleja and Coelocanth (Friday 13th April)

Yes, I'm sorry but I honestly can't decide which of my two favourite sketches of the day I wanted to include, so there are two on this post. 

Now, I did think about taking the train into Vilnius on this, Friday 13th.  However the options were trains at 9:15 – too early – and 12:35. Bearing in mind that I think it takes a good hour there and another one back, I didn’t think that would leave me enough time to do anything very worthwhile or meaningful in Vilnius, so I scratched the idea. 

This left me the question of what to do for another day in Kaunas. Google maps came in very handy for this. I wish I’d had the sense to look at this on Wednesday to be honest with you. I decided that I hadn’t yet visited any museums, and so that had to be put onto the itinerary. We’ll get to that. Once in Kaunas town centre I headed for a huge, white, art deco church on top of the hill overlooking the town. This is the Church of Christ’s Resurrection. 

Back down the hill then, to do a wee bit more painting in Liesvas Aleja. Here I had my first conversation with a passer-by. He sat down just as I was finishing, and when I replied to what he said with my usual shoulder shrug and “Sorry – I’m English”, he started a conversation . His English wasn’t, it must be said, completely intelligible, whether through a lack of vocabulary, or from the alcoholic fumes wafting from his breath, I couldn’t be sure. I think he said that the UK are crazy, and it’s America for him. You’re welcome, I said. I made my apologies and left. 

I'm just really pleased with this , since it’s the first time I’ve ended up with an urban sketch that looks like the kind of sketches I admire when I see other people do them. Even if I did leave a couple of windows unfinished in my haste to get away from Chatty Von Boozebreath.

Museums, then. Handily placed on the Liesvas Aleja is the Zoological Museum. Now, if you like stuffed animals, this is the place for you. Look, I kind of expect that from a Natural History Museum sort of thing, but I did think the room full of mounted stags heads and antlers was taking the pee. I did make a sketch of a coelacanth. Childhood memories of watching Sir David of Attenborough’s “Life on Earth” demanded no less.

They call you a Living Fossil

From where I stood, you looked

More fossil

Than Living

* To see ALL of my Kaunas Sketches , use the link on the right to visit my sister blog, Sketching Around Europe

One Sketch #18) Laisves Aleja in Kaunas (Thursday 12th April)

Laisves Aleja is a long, straight pedestrianised thoroughfare - whose name I believe translates into English as Freedom Avenue. It runs to the Archangel Michael Church, and almost has something of the aspect of a Parisian Boulevard.

It's well worth taking a stroll along its length - if you like architecture as I do you'll see a range of different styles. The avenue is well furnished with benches along its length, so it was very pleasant to sit down and make this watercolour sketch.

I quite like this. I don't find colour an easy thing to use or to judge, so I can't help being pleased when the end result resembles what I was trying to achieve in my head.

Sun is on my back
And now that the wind has dropped
Feel the breath of Spring

* To see ALL of my Kaunas Sketches , use the link on the right to visit my sister blog, Sketching Around Europe

One Sketch #16 Bristol Airport (Tuesday 10th)

D'Oh. I've just realised that the rucksack sketch I posted on Tuesday was actually made on Monday, and only posted on Tuesday. This has put me out of sync - the Bridge sketch posted yesterday was made on Wednesday. Therefore here's one of three sketches I made in Bristol Airport waiting for my flight on Tuesday. I shall renumber the Bridge one when I've posted this.

This could have been quite difficult. I'm sure that the beardy guy on the left was aware that I was sketching him and his friends, and it turned out that they were on the same flight as me. I was driven to sketching by boredom and frustration, since my flight was subject to a typical Ryanair one hour delay.

A sea of disgruntlement
Or an oasis of anticipation?
Some going here
Others there.
Nobody wants to stay.

* To see ALL of my Kaunas Sketches , use the link on the right to visit my sister blog, Sketching Around Europe

One Sketch #17) Vytautas the Great Bridge, Kaunas (Wednesday 11th)

Yes, I know that I haven't posted for several days, but that was because I couldn't log onto the blog in Kaunas. I still sketched ever day - in fact in 4 days I did the best part of 20 sketches. This first is from Wednesday 12th, my first full day in Lithuania. Whenever I go for a city break anywhere I always like to seek out the mot impressive or interesting bridge in the city, if it has one. I have a thing about bridges. This one is interesting because it was built in 1948, just after the end of war, and during the Soviet occupation.

I did cross the bridge - all part of the ritual - and again the next day, where I made a watercolour sketch of the Vytautas the Great Church as the other end.

Water flows below this bridge
Moved by the maelstrom of History

* To see ALL of my Kaunas Sketches , use the link on the right to visit my sister blog, Sketching Around Europe

One Sketch #15 My rucksack

It was a busy day for me yesterday. I' flying to Lithuania a little later today, and there were a lot of bits and pieces I was having to take care of. My rucksack is what I tend to take if I'm going for less than 5 days, so I've been sorting it out, taking out all but my sketching essentials to make way for less important stuff like clothes.

The trainer is added because it's the most comfortable pair I have, and one of the features of my city break sketching trips is walking. Don't get me wrong, I love public transport, but there's nothing quite like wandering around and just following your nose. This is my first trip of 2018, and I have to say it's a bit more off the beaten track than my visits to Prague, Alicante, Berlin and Budapest were in 2017.

An empty rucksack
A promise of new horizons
New places
Strange words
Hard beds in cheap hotels
A reminder of who I once was
And might have been

Blimey, that sounds a bit melancholy, doesn't it. I dash these lines down off the top of my head, so doubtless it's all deeply psychological. Despite that, I really enjoy these trips, and I'm looking forward to posting some interesting sketches - although the posting might have to wait until Saturday unless the hotel's wifi works well.

One Sketch #14 2000 Forints

Right, this came about because I'm off on my travels in a couple of days. - Ah - say you, seeing that I have sketched part of a 2000 forint note - the must mean you're off to Hungary! - . You'd think so, wouldn't you, if you know your currencies. However that's not the case. For the fact is that Hungary was the last place I visited in Europe, back at the start of November.

Here's the sketch: -

This is how it works. I've been trying to tie up some loose ends today, sorting out airport parking and what have you. One of the tasks I set myself was clearing out my rucksack. Lo and behold, this 2000 forint note was lurking in a side pocket. I suppose that I might have put it there for an emergency - although it would have had to be a cheap emergency, since 2000 forints is about £5.50

Well, there we are. I'm actually off to Kaunas this week, and I'm really rather looking forward to it. I paid three visits to central European cities in 2017 - Prague, Berlin and Budapest, and I enjoyed all of them. So going a little bit further North and East is rather exciting to me. Of course, Lithuania's currency is the Euro which makes life a bit easier. It also means that anything I don't spend will be kept for my next trip, or for Mary's next visit to her mother in Spain.

Well, there we are. That's week 2 done. Yay. Halfway to one month. What's that? Where's the verse? Oh very well, if you must. I will admit that I did a little research for this one, finding out that the chap on the note is Bethlen Gabor, former Prince of Transylvania . . .

Impassive figure on my note,
Were you just a sad old goat?
Did you suffer from some mania
Being Prince of Transylvania?

Apparently not, as he did much to develop his country - well, they wouldn't put an absolute rotter on a note, would they?