Acqua Alta in Venice



Albrecht Rissler
Ink on paper

Albrecht's postcard is done from the window from his room because it was raining. I feel like I could have been there watching him over his shoulder while he drew this card. I can feel the rain and wind from the pen strokes. Very special! I also included the reverse side with his wonderful hand written words. I thought you would like the chance to read someone else’s mail.

 I always do.

 

Check out the boots. They make me smile.

My card from Albrecht

I'm once again so happy to be the owner of this card from Albrecht. His use of pencil to capture a scene is a joy. You can almost see the pencil dancing across the card - adding here and there a little detail, hatching to achieve the darker tones and leaving the white to show the flash of sunlight.

Turner's painting of the Castle

He's siting on the famous Goethe Marianne Bench at Heidlberg Castle and when I  researched to find out more  I've realised what an important historical place it is and I've added an illustration of a painting by Turner to show it's significance.

Albrecht has also drawn a carving on the limestone bench of Ginko leaves and a Hoopoe. Thankyou Albrecht.

The T2 Tea House in North Ryde, Sydney

This is the famous T2 Tea House in Sydney - scene of many a pen and ink and watercolour sketch by Liz and Borromini

Liz knows how I love drawing interiors - particularly ones where eating and drinking are involved and I was tickled pink to get a sketch of the interior of her favourite tea house in Sydney.

Liz has impeccable perspective as always - even when it comes to shelves of tea and a counter of other goodies. I am so impressed by the writing on the blackboard and I'm hoping there was a little trick involved there with resist maybe?

The T2 Teahouse, North Ryde, Sydney

It was raining when Liz did her sketch so on the reverse I got another of my favourite Liz sketches - what she was eating and drinking.  It looks to me as if Liz was sharing a virtual cream tea with me! :)

I have to apologise to Liz for being extremely late in posting this - it dates from before her recent trips to the Dominican Republic and the USA.  I've got very behind with posting cards received and getting cards sent and am in the middle of a big catch up!

Where to find the T2 Teahouse: Macquarie Shopping Centre, Level 4, Shop 440, Cnr Herring Rd & Waterloo Rd, North Ryde, Sydney, NSW 2113 Australia

Lizard for Borromini / Liz-Art from S.Domingo

Liz spent 3 days at an Urban Sketchers Symposium in the Dominican Republic.

I wish I would have been there too! 

Thank you so much Liz for your colorful July-card. The image shows a warm sunny day in the Caribbian. The nice stamps on the back made me curious to know who this person Dame Melba was. Now I understand the connection with the stamp in the middle... 

Next time downtown Heidelberg I will think of you and her while enjoying the dessert. 

(I hope it is alright using Borromini's wonderful gift for covering the address)

What a Finale!

My last postcard has arrived safely and how appropriate that it is from Katherine Tyrrell, who brought us all together through Sketchercise.

Do click on the image and you will see I've posted a large version so everyone can enjoy Katherine's beautiful fine penwork and her skilled approach to overlaying different layers of coloured pencil to achieve wonderfully natural colours.

This is certainly more painting than postcard - 16.5 x 24 cms on Arches HP.  It's a drawing of the new Chinese Pagoda in London's Victoria Park.  Such beautiful reflections in the West Lake which Katherine says is not yet full again following the major desilt operation. 

Thank you so much, Katherine.  This one is now in search of a suitable frame.

Postcard from Ronelle

I've been greatly looking forward to getting Ronelle's postcard as I've been a big fan of her work for years. What a lovely surpise it was to see her characteristically fresh, vibrant style coupled with a cool, muted winter palatte! It was done in inks, watercolour, gouache and pen and in the flesh it has wonderful texture too with raised splatters of gouache.

 

The envelope, containing some lovely arty goodies, was instantly recognisable with another beautiful splashy guoache sketch! Thank you Ronelle, for this amazing treasure!

Roof Top Ambiance

Here it is….Ta Da! 

Ronelle’s postcard. 

Roof Tops of Vayrac, France

Ronelle said she painted this scene, from a hill top, of a cute little village she likes to go to, for the best coffee and ambiance. You can see even the roof tops have ambiance, let alone having a bistro that serves great coffee. I am on a plane tomorrow for that…..I Wish! Of course when you have something like this in your hand every line and wash of vibrant color just makes your heart tingle.

Here is a corner of the envelope.

As always, when you get something form

Ronelle, even the envelope is deliciously rendered.

I am so sorry to say that this is the last postcard I will receive from our 14 month adventure of the blog “A Postcard From My Walk”.  And Yep!, I have 14 original paintings from 14 great artists (that I soooo! respect) and from all over the world.

Willow reflections

Katherine's card popped up at Coin Perdu in the New Year, but it was actually done still in the old year. Maybe reflecting on the old year, while sketching the reflections of the willow...?

..the willows..
done in colored pencil and pen on Arches HP paper, 19x28.5cm

Between the full sketch and the crop below, one can get a great feeling of the marks Katherine makes with her pencils and pen. a lot of cross hatching, some erasing for the higlights, some darker pressure here and a soft touch there... I especially love the darkness of the reflections breaking up into softer tones and hues and more highlights and finally disappear into the lefthand corner, adding such lovely diagonal movement. I feel as if I'm slowly passing in a canoe, dragging my hand through the ripples and reflections.

...the willows(detail)...

Katherine chose to compliment the Loire here in my world with her sketch of the willows at the basin of the Regent's canal there in her world...very appropriate and very special! Thank you for a lovely card Katherine!

Pagoda in Katharine's local park

I have not even looked for Katherine’s signature on her postcard. The beautiful drawing of a park in her neighborhood with a pagoda could only have been drawn by her. It is her unique artistc style.

I used a magnifying glass to see what Katherine has used first. The red felt pen. Right? The red lines give the drawing a warm expression as in the postcards that we all cherish.

Even the colors of the stamps are matching those in her drawing!

Thank you Katherine so much for the beautiful card.

Stunning Autumn Glory at Sheffield Park

This card needs no words.  Enjoy!   I certainly am.  It's genuinely tremendous!!

Thank you so much Katherine.  I have been studying it carefully working out the technique.  The delicate interlace of pen and coloured pencil works brilliantly.

Lucky me!

If you'd like to know more about the wonders of Sheffield Park see Katherine's recent posts on her sketchbook blog:

• Autumn Colour at Sheffield Park
• An Indian Summer (and ice lakes) at Sheffield Park

An Indian Summer from Heidelberg

A glorious sun-dappled pathway up the Heiligenberg is my eagerly awaited card from Albrecht this month. I can clearly sense the delight of walking here in this bonus bit of summer, bringing with it a range of colours never seen here before - of which Albrecht thoughtfully drew up a chart for me to 'fill in' his drawing with!! But Albrecht, you forgot to put the numbers where each colour should go... ;-) Besides, the line drawing is quite descriptive enough. On the other side, a sparkling sketch of plane trees in front of his window give me a good idea of the colour version - what a beautiful postcard, I love the touch of the sketchbook perforations down the side.

Another view of Dresden

Bautzener Strasse in Dresden

I'm not quite sure if I'm posting late or in advance as Desiree has also posted a postcard this from Martin from Dresden.  However I think there's a few which are a bit out of synch so I'm not going to worry and will post in any case!

This is a pen and ink sketch of Bautzener Strasse in Dresden where Martin was taking a short holiday.

Martin tells me that the street is very famous for being home to a shop called Pfunds Molkerei (Pfund's Dairy) - which today is a cheese shop (the link is to the website which is in German).  I put the website through Google translate and it came back with an English Translation telling me that the shop is in the Guinness Book of Records for being the "most beautiful dairy shop in the world equipped with 247.90 square meters of hand-painted tiles from Villeroy and Boch".  You can see a photograph of the interior here - it looks truly amazing!  Wikipedia (Germany) also has some good images.  For anybody wanting to visit, this its location on Google Maps.

Thanks for thinking of my taste buds Martin!

Kew Gardens

This exquisite colored pencil and sepia ink painting is from Katherine Tyrrell .  She said this is a sketch of one of her favorite views in Kew Gardens.  It’s the east/west axis from the Palm House looking toward the Chinese Pagoda.  The Pagoda in reality is a deep crimson but Katherine said it always looks blue when viewed from a distance.

It was such a treat to come home from my vacation/working week away to find this wonderful piece of art just sitting there waiting for me.  I can’t even put into words the beauty of each colored pencil stroke combined with another color to magically make shape and depth and glowing contrast.

Peek into a Creative Corner

Pat's card has arrived and transported me into her private, creative world. This beautifully rendered study is a corner of her den. It has such a calm elegance I just want to take my mug of coffee and a note book and sit there, confident that it is the source of inspiration. Pat obviously took her mug of coffee in there with her because a little of it has added to the antique style of my card. You'd never pick it because it has been transformed into a grape vine, above a lovely splash of summer landscape on the reverse side of the card.

Beautiful environmental stamps too. Thanks Pat, I love it!

Apple trees and sunlight from Albrecht

An apple tree on his balcony by Albrecht

This beautiful study of sunlight filtering through the leaves of an apple tree on Albrecht's balcony arrived today.  I found it quite hard to scan because of the lovely subtlety in the tones and colours in the leaves and the glow of those slightly rosy/russet apples.   If you have a better photo Albrecht, I'll substitute it.  

And on the reverse one of his great pen studies of a tree boll

 

Another gem :>)  from someone who really understands trees and draws/paints them so beautifully.

Thank you, I love it.

Balboa Beach Sunset

From a park above Balboa Beach, California

I've received this delighful postcard of the view from a park above Balboa Beach in California from Pat. It's on heavyish watercolour paper.  I couldn't quite decide whether it was NOT or rough.  It certainly stood up to its travels very well.

Pat tells me that she climbs up the hill in the park so she can see the ocean, the rooftops and the sunset in the evening.   She then sketches at the top before taking herself off a pastry and a coffee!

The view and her story took me back instantly to 2006.  I whiled away some time during my drive down Highway 1 from San Francisco to San Diego having my Sunday morning breakfast in a cafe above Zuma Beach on Highway 1 in Malibu.

Pat's postcard reminded me so much of being up high looking down at the California coastline and the Pacific Ocean.  It's great to have a reminder of what it feels like to look down at the ocean.

From Liz in Australia to Pat in USA

I received Liz and Borromini Bear's postcard a few days ago and have been trying to figure out the best way of posting the image.  My camera just hasn't done it justice so I am posting it anyway with a disclaimer that...In real life it is much much better.  You will have to come to my house for tea and a rest in the garden to see the real thing though.  It felt so special when my husband handed me the mail saying you will be happy about the mail today.  Sure enough Liz's postcard has put a smile on my face for days.




Having a Cuppa in Nanna's China

Watercolor, ink postcard



  

I love the back of the card with all the wonderful
stamps and of course Liz's perfect handwriting. 





These areas were so wonderful I wanted to highlight them.
Especially the tea cozy keeping Liz's
 tea warm and ready for the second cuppa.



I want to thank you, Liz, for this wonderful addition to my growing collection of precious art from around the world.

Zaisersweiher, Germany

What a delight to recieve this card from Martin! On the back Martin has written 'These black and white greetings show a neighbouring village named Zaisersweiher (ink on paper).' From that description it sounds like a modest sketch but in reality it is very thick so perhaps it has been pasted onto board? I'm reminded of Cathy's words describing the back of another of Martin's cards as being like having a sample of his busy working studio, because it has some wonderful marks and textures, it's full of energy and industry. Also like Cathy, I put this on my mantlepiece, admiring the composition and the values, and then I found that it seems to change and reveal more details depending on the distance you are from it! It's a real treasure, thank you Martin!

A cold, but sunny afternoon-postcard from Cathy to Ronelle

...a bright splash of colour...camelia..

Our postman complains all the time. First it is about the mailbox not being the standard size. We have an old vintage one from 1930.
Then he complains because the rules say it should be locked. I don't care much for keys.
His biggest complain is probably about the narrow road in which he can't make a U-turn, he has to pull back up all the way uphill in reverse.
So when the postman visits and I'm outside, he recites his whole poem of complaints while handing me the mail. I am then depressed for the whole of the day, because I don't want him to be unhappy, but I also don't want to give in to all his boring demands.

But, according to Hartman who received the card when I was in Provence, on delivering Cathy's card the postman didn't complain a single word, instead, he patati patata'd the whole time about the "jolie envelope"! What a delight for both of us...me and my postman!

...une jolie envelope...!

...A sunny wintry afternoon at Emmarentia dam in South Africa...
watercolor and pen on watercolor paper, 25,5x18cm

..and some detail ...

Thank you for a special card Cathy, with all its snippets of typical South African delicacies...rooibos tea from Eleven o'clock....Jungle oats....and redro fishpaste - how I hated that as a child, well, I probably still do, but now I love the memory of that hate!!

Small Road to Coin Perdu

18.5cm x 17.5cm Gouache, Pen, Pencil

Every small road leads to big discoveries - Ronelle van Wyk

For my postcard, Ronelle has painted the little road that leads to her mountain home in Correze, France.

In her note on the back of the card Ronelle said:

I've always believed that tiny roads also lead to big surprises. This was how we found Coin Perdu, a secret little jewel at the end of a small road. The hills are very green with stunning spots of white and yellow and orange wildflowers everywhere. The cattle are back in the fields, keeping their young ones close by, the lambs doing their usual mischief, the birds and the bees are busy, busy, busy ... the deer jumping from field to field ... all in all, nature is exploding with life and optimism.

She went on to say, she hopes to explore more of these quiet, small roads this summer and discover with her brush and paint the surprises that await at their ends.

Ronelle is always full of wonderful surprises, some of them not so small. In the huge envelope with the postcard were other delightful gifts and the pen and gouache sketch on the front of the envelope must have surprised and delighted French and Italian postal workers as they passed it along to me.

Thank you Ronelle. I'm looking forward to exploring other small roads with you in Provence this June.