Autumn in Powassan

                                                                        Looking North, Edward st

Powassan, Ontario, Canada is my home town of about 1300 people .   I most often visit in June or July and don't see the changing autumn leaves of the Maple trees.  So, this year it has been great to experience an Indian summer with warm weather and sunny skies and to sketch the colourful landscape.

                        Powassan, the old Storey farm. 

         

  Corner of Clark and Edwards street, former Paul home       

    W H Mather home

Hooking

    

                                                                                                                This lady kindly let me sketch her while she hooked a snowman.

My mother hooks rugs and belongs to a group who do the same.  This week in our town, Powassan in Northern Ontario, there was a "hook-in" where the Powassan group and other hooking groups in surrounding areas came together to show their work, hook their rugs, talk and generally learn from each other.  

To hook a rug narrow pieces of wool fabric are placed into the coarse weave of French linen with a hook to create any manner of image.  They are paintings in fibre and are really works of art.

Here are a few rugs from the hook-in.

    

  

                                   These two rugs were hooked by Lyn Goegan

            Above is a hooking by my mother, Margaret Butler.

                This hooking is by Mary Lyn Poulin.

This is a partially finished hooking by Bonnie O'Halloran and is based on a photo of her grand daughter.

               This is a hooking being worked on by Katherine Kirton.                                                 

Gaudi, modernism in Barcelona

                                                                            Barcelona is a beautiful city with Gothic architecture in the old quarter at one architectural extreme and the beautiful modern work of Gaudi at the other.  

One of Gaudi's main masterpieces is the cathedral, Sagrada Familia. it is still being built and will take about another tweny years.  Our group went to this cathedral twice, once during he day and once at night and it was extraordinary.  No sketch unfortunately.

I visited four other Gaudi buildings and sketched two.  I sat underneath the above residential building called Casa Batllo . The columns are like bones and it is very unsymmetrical.

The Park designed by Gaudi is below.  The group went at night and I returned the next morning to do these sketches.

                                    

Barcelona

                                                                            I have enjoyed Barcelona very much.  The architecture is so varied, from the gothic to modern and post modern.  The above sketch is from the harbour front and the statue of Christopher Columbus pointing to the new world, I suppose.

The lower sketch is of an internal courtyard of the cathedral called Esglesia Catedral de la Santa Creu.   The geese are traditionally used like we westerners sometimes use a dog, as security.  When disturbed they make a racket thus alerting the nuns that someone was about.  The tour group had a look at this cathedral when we first got to Barcelona and I brought the sketch book for a second visit.  It was lovely in there.

   

Churros in Madrid

      

Madrid is one of the largest cities in Europe and has some of the best galleries in Spain.  

When we arrived here from Granada we went directly to the earliest restaurant in the world, founded in 1725, called Calle de Cuchilleros.  There was so much atmosphere and the food was wonderful, specialising in roast baby lamb and suckling pig.  The city of Madrid itself is full of magnificent buildings, palaces and churches.  There is quite a lot of reference to Don Quixote in statues.

We were told that the best churros, see above sketch, are from the San Gines restaurant.  The churros are like a deep fried pastry and you dip them in chocolate.  We did go to this churros place and they were great, freshly made, piping hot and the chocolate was thick and good.

This is a sketch of the side entrance of Museo Navional del Prado.  I had spent the morning in Museo Nacional Centro de rate Reina Sofia which holds art from the 20 th century like Picasso, Miro and Dali.  After that museum I needed to sit down so went up to the Prado and did the sketch.   As you can see the sky was a bit dark, looking like rain.  I ran out of time and didn't get in to see the Prado as was meeting the others to have churros and since I was starving, that was a priority.  

There wasn't enough time in Madrid, another visit is needed.  next stop Barcelona.

Granata

          

         

                                                                       Granada is a beautiful city placed at the base of a mountain and  climbing up it.   I love all the grand buildings, fountains, churches and sculptures. There are little alleyways with shops selling things like we saw  in Morocco.  in fact, my fellow tourists suggested they need not have gone to Morocco!

We climbed up the mountain at sunset to see the city view and the next night went up again to see the gypsies, who live in the caves, do a Flamenco show.

The sketch above is of a corner of the cathedral in Granata with a beautiful pinky orange building to the right of it when facing the cathedral.  I ate a paella  in the middle of this sketch.  The waiter said it would take 35 min to make which gave me nearly enough time to sketch in the basics, finishing afterwards.

            This is at the  Alhambra in Granata which is an Unesco World Heritage site.  This is a number of palaces which were built between 1237 and 1558 with beautiful gardens too.  This view was from a tower looking towards another tower and the mountains behind.  There are even more beauful vistas but I had a very short time to sketch and didn't have the time to run back.  

The Alhambra is the jewel in the crown of the beautiful city of Granata.  Next stop....Madrid.

       

Sevilla

                                  

Sevilla is the first major city we are visiting on tour.  It is a free day to do what we want and I was busy sketching.   The top sketch is the cathedral or la Santa Iglesias Cathedral de Sevilla.  it was built over the main mosque  of Seville from the 9th century.  Christopher Columbus's tomb is in this cathedral and he set off for the voyage which resulted in finding America not far from Seville.

                                  

    The above sketch is the entrance to the palace of the king and is called el real Alcazar.   The sketch below is of Torre del Oro or the locals call it the yellow tower.  I had a prawn and mushroom risotto and coke while I sketched this one.   We are going to Flamenco tonight which will be exciting.  Sevilla is a beautiful city from the golden age and well worth seeing.

                              

Morocco- Marrakech to Fes

The last few days from Marrekech to Fes have been a whirlwind.  There has hardly been a chance to take photos let alone a sketch.  Yesterday, exploring Fes has been a highlight.  This has been what I imagined Morocco to be.  In the old city thousands of people live in a labyrinth of narrow (sometimes only a metre wide) streets.  Some doorways were massive for the horse to enter and within that was a smaller one for every day use.  There are community bakeries where people can take their food to be put in their wood fired ovens and either buy their bread or have their own bread baked there.  We saw lots of children with trays of bread on their heads, bringing it home for their mothers. The Madina or marketplace was massive and so interesting.  There are sections for each type of product for sale, for example for the leather, for the ceramics, food, spices, dying material, weaving, metal work, mosaics, food, fruit and veg and much more.  Many of the stalls had people working, sewing, dying material, making the metal items etc. A person would be lost so easily as there are thousands of lanes.  We went to a mosaic factory to see how the fountains and tables are made. They also made ceramics and painted he traditional designs on them. The tannery was fascinating although very, very odourous. There were hundreds of vats outside and the process of making an animal hide into soft leather could be seen. They use natural dyes from flowers and plants to make the colours.  It didn't look very healthy from the men who worked their physically attending to this process.

The food has been wonderful and we have gone to some people's homes and eaten meals and to some restaurants that you would never know existed from the street or if you were a regular tourist.  I am loving he tag ins and cous cous dishes and am now a great fan of mint tea.

Yesterday afternoon we went to a Hassam which is a bathhouse.  We were scrubbed within an inch of our lives.  It was quite an experience and great fun.

Marrakech

Marrakech is the first city in Morrocco that I am visiting and it is where the tour begins. I had an idea of what this city would look like but it is not that so much.  I thought it would be a hilly place with tall stone buildings.  Actually it seems quite flat and the buildings are not tall except for the hotels and shopping centres. The traffic is astounding, very few traffic lights and cars going everywhere.  As a pedestrian a person takes their life in their hands crossing the street.  The cars are parked everywhere including around the corners. 

Every building is pink which is interesting.

I went to the main square which is very lively at night. During the day it is a market place.  It was great to see the donkeys pulling the carts of goods.  They were selling nuts and pulses as well as the crafts they make here like woven cloth, metal work , leather and silver jewellery.

I had a mint tea and sketched a little bit of a lane with merchants selling, people buying and chatting.

People were keeping an eye on me working and the guy in the left foreground kept posing.  I was able to fit him in...mostly.

I arrived yesterday and the hotel wIhere we are staying with the tour was full so I was booked in with a traditional place nearby.  The decor was very interesting with animal print bedspreads and drapes on the bed.  I couldn't resist doing a sketch of it.  It screamed Morrocco!

Holiday

I am doing something different and a bit exciting this holiday.  I am off to Paris for a few days before going to  Morrocco and Spain.  Then a few weeks in Canada to see family and friends.

This church is near my hotel and it is massive.  Inside is spectacular with domed ceiling, marble floor, sculptures and small chairs in rows that have the rush seats.  They remind me of Van Gogh chairs, the ones in his yellow room painting.                                                        Here are some more sketches done today after a good night's sleep.  I must say.....I am loving this city!

Under the Tour Eiffel

               Moulin Rouge in Montmarte

The Arc de Triomphe