One Sketch #23) Classroom door

As I said in yesterday's post, this is my first week back in work - school - since the Easter break. It's been a hard day. Part of my problem is that the older you get, the less tolerant you get, and the harder it is to put up with the niggling little darlings.

I am too old
A fossil from the chalk age
Too old to do something else
And too young to finish.

Gosh, that's miserable isn't it. Sorry, it's been that kind of day.

One Sketch #22) Abbaye de Hambay in Normandy

No, I haven't been off on a jolly to Normandy. But I did sketch it today, and so it therefore qualifies. I love Normandy, and I love this particular Northern French brand of gothic ecclesiastical architecture.

Pourquoi les batiments Normands
Sont si belles?
It would take a far wiser fellow
Than me to tell.

One Sketch #21) Baby Alfie's bear mat

Right, this is a little bit of a change of pace after all the excitement of the Kaunas sketchpedition. I have 3 grandchildren, and the youngest one, 7 week old Alfie, is spending the night with my wife and me for the first time. I sketched this when we set it up just before he arrived. It's a large, soft, furry mat in the shape of a fat, flat teddy bear, with dangly bunnies and things suspended overhead. He loves it. I'll be honest, I can see the appeal, and wouldn't mind if I was small enough to fit in it myself.

Young man
You'll not stay this way
I know
You'll grow
And learn
And all too soon
Become what you will be.
We'll see
How you will change
But all the same
Stay perfect, as you be.
For perfect's what you are
To me.

Sketchbook Revival

I've just been over to Liz Steel's blog, and seen this free online course offered - called Sketchbook Revival. I followed this link, and signed up. You might want to check it out yourself.

Sketchbook Revival Sign up

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