Shoes

All this started as I was looking for space in our shoe cupboard for my new winter shoes. I noticed that there were some empty shoe boxes because I got rid of some old shoes the other day. I wanted to use these boxes for other shoes but how will I know which shoes i have put in which box? „I can take a picture with my phone", I thought but then remembered that my printer was not working. „So, I can sketch them, this can be fun.“ It was snowing outside for the first time this year, so what can be nicer than spending the afternoon sketching my shoes cosy at home?

While sketching my shoes I realized that I had an emotional relationship to some. 

I love red shoes and I love boots. I bought these FLY red boots 6, 7 years ago. In that time I knew only one shop in Hamburg that had FLY shoes and it took me a whole year until I finally bought them. I still love them and wear them a lot.

These shoes I bought in London while visiting my most beloved R & P. R and me spent the day together in London and we ended at the Clarks shoe shop in Oxford street. Now, always when I wear them I think of R. and that day in London.

Also, these blue boots remind me of R & P because I bought them in their hometown Leamington Spa.

These are shining silver shoes. I fell in love with them immediately because they are very comfortable, pure leather on the out- and inside and they where half price! I was very unsure about buying them because I am not the type for shining silver shoes… But after a week of going to that shop every day I finally bought them and I really love them!

Also with these shoes I've had difficulties to decide. During a sommer holiday in Austria at the end of a rainy hiking day with my friend C., we visited Schladming and investigated the shops there, especially the shoe shop… I loved the orange shoe lace, but actually I didn’t need any shoes…  C. was very patient with me as it took me a long time until I finally bought them. Everytime I wear them I think of C. and our time there.










I had so much fun sketching my shoes, getting lost in memories and stories that I actually forgot the reason for this big mess. The sketches are way too big to fix them to the edges of the boxes. „I can take a picture of them and print them smaller“ but then I remembered: „the printer doesn’t work…“

Hamburger Hauptbahnhof

The central train station in Hamburg "Hamburger Hauptbahnhof" is an impressive steel construction from 1906. It was a big task for me to sketch such a massive building. 

But even a bigger challenge was to catch the atmosphere inside and around the station.
Funny how sketching does change things. Usually I try to avoid passing through this busy, noisy and full station. But as I started to sketch it, I was fascinated and returned several times for more sketching.

Although I passed the „Wandelhalle“ (shopping area in the station) many times I never noticed this beautiful flower shop. A. - with whom I was for the first time sketching - insisted to draw this shop. So I did it too. Now I know that it’s a well known flower shop in Hamburg.

Sketching with coffee :)

Time for coffee

Autumn

Autumn is not my favorite season. Honestly I really don’t like this time of the year. Summer (which we didn’t really have this year) is over, the days get shorter and shorter, and it means that the next 5 months will be grey, dark, wet and cold. But nevertheless I do see the beauty of this period. I cannot ignore the beautiful play of the nature and get very impressed by the its main actors: the trees, which go through these dramatic changes every year.

Corner Houses in Hamburg

I love corner houses :)

Bergerdorfer Markt 

Lobuschstraße - Am Felde - klausstraße

Bahrenfelder Straße - Eulenstraße

Lange Reihe - Schmilinskystraße

Georgplatz

Schulterblatt - Juliusstraße

Tel Aviv in August

At the end of August my nephew got married in Israel and this was a good reason to come to a short visit and to spend a week full of family activities in my homeland. It was really very hot and humid so I didn’t spend a lot of time walking through the streets as I use to do, when I visit in March. Tel Aviv has several beautiful alleys which are shady and pleasant in summer. This one is Sderot Chen.

I was lucky and the Tel Aviv urban sketcher had a meeting on the one Friday that I was there. I joined them at the flea market in Jaffa. This flea market is quite a big area which is open every day of the year, full of stands of vintage, antik furnitures shops, old and new clothes, cafés and restaurants. Specially on Friday morning it’s very crowded as most of the people in Israel don’t work on friday. I found there a nice shaded corner and tried to catch the atmosphere around me.

Some pic. from the meeting with the creative sketchers of Tel aviv

Eutin - German Urban Sketcher Symposium 2017

Last weekend I joined the symposium of the german urban sketchers in Eutin together with100 enthusiastic sketchers. Eutin ist a small town in the north of Germany, surrounded by a number of lakes and is proud of it’s castle and it’s beautiful big park. 

We gathered on friday afternoon for registration and were very exited to get this heavily filled  goody bag! I started sketching immediately with the liquid gel ink pen from Pentel on the brown paper block from Boesner. A new experience for me. 

In the evening we had a portrait party. I was in the „nougat“ group with Bibs, Antje and Sylvina. It was fun, we laughed a lot and it was a nice way to get to know each other.

On saturday morning I had a workshop with Tine Klein. Julia and me found a good place in the middle of the saturday market and where observing and sketching the busy market place. The people in Eutin were very curious and many stopped to watch us and talked with us. „Did you paint it yourself?“ „I also would like to paint, but I wait until I am in pension.“ „Why do you do it?“

 

My afternoon workshop was with Omar Jaramillo. The subject was „negative space“ and it was about aquarell painting. It was a very good experience for me sketching or painting without any lines just with the brush.

In the evening we were the audience of the theatre group „Mischpoke“ and sketched the actors in their rehearsal. We had to sketch really very fast!

On Sunday we had an open sketch-crawl and more sketchers came to join us. Here are the castle again from a different point of view, the church place and the market place.

 

 Later on there was a vernissage of our exhibition in the castle. 

It was a great weekend. I enjoyed every minute of sitting and drawing, being surrounded by other sketchers, meeting people face to face and associating drawings to their creators. It was heart warming and very inspiring.

Thank you Eutin! Next year in Hamburg!

I was drawn by Marion VO

         

the goody bag :)

 






Workshop Omar Jaramillo 

here we are all of us: