zondag 31 maart 2013

Tenerife

Winters are long here!!! So we anted to escape to the sun and bought a ticket to the sun. To go from freezing temperatures and snow to a soft 20° feels fantastic!!


We stayed in the north of Tenerife, greener and more mountains but also soooo much more beautiful than the south!!!


We had a hotel with a small studio as room. we could cook something small. We first had a room just above the entrance of the hotel. The whole day long there were busses coming and going.. smelly noisy busses, so we asked another room and that was much better


The view from the terrace of the hotel


The Iglesia de la Conception in Santa Cruz


I had a compagnon during my sketching... he stayed in my neighborhood, kicking a lighter, looking in the garbage-bins, mumbling...


A quiet corner in the harbor  of Puerto de la Cruz... Puerto de la Cruz is a very touristic place, not my cup of tea...



La Oratava two drinks two sketches and nice simple recipe to make at home..

View over Oratava, sitting in the Park of Victoria 


I was sketching in the park and there was a man who came to me and asked if i knew the history of the park. He was a free mason and in the monument was built for the free masons and full of symbols, He showed me everything. It was a very interesting encounter!!



Another view over Oravata



Vulcano El Teide... always wear sunscreen and good shoes... 


Enjoying the sun on a terrace  in Puerto de la Cruz


A colleague of mine gave us a tip of a great fish restaurant in San Juan de la Rambla... we tried it and loved it!!

One evening in the hotel, a local dance group. They saw me sketching and came to have a look, they recognized themselves. I wondered how, because I sometimes started with one dancer and ended in the same sketch with another one :)

Icod de los Vinos

Icod de los Vinos is a very beautiful little city... tourists come to visit the old dragon tree

And we visited the butterfly-garden




we visited Las Montanas de Anaga

La Laguna

La Laguna



A terrace in La Laguna with a man who knows it all :)



at the pool of the hotel



Los Gigantes sketched from a poolside with a view!!!!













zaterdag 4 augustus 2012

Essaouira Morocco

In august we went to Essaouira (Morocco) as students of the academy. We were 12 in total.
Essaouira is like the cave of Ali Baba for sketchers! There's no traffic, there's a harbour, souks, bazars and beautiful people... and good food!
This is a sketch made in our hotel 'Les matins bleus', a beautiful riad...


A corner of the harbour of Essaouira
On the old walls of Essaouira...


At the foot of the walls an old man made colourful hats 

Two boys joined us and we gave them a paper and pencil and started sketching with us!!

I loved the mornings. Before breakfast I went out alone to sketch... Sketching is an ideal way to make contact and have a little talk with locals. They didn't mind being sketched. They recognized people I sketched and wrote down their name in arabic...


The mornings are quiet, shops still closed, tourists still in their hotels...