AUTUMN 2109 CAMPING TRIP

 

We had a good time in September camping close to home and our first stop was at St Cast le Guildo, not far from Dinard on the north coast of Brittany and only one and a half hours drive away.  The campsite was on terraces with lovely views across the bay towards the next headland. This is the view through our door on our plot where we spent a week, walking and getting together with our caravanning friends at the start of their own autumn holiday.

I usually gather a bunch of typical wild flowers to put on our table and here is the first selection.

There was a lovely coastal path around the beach at St Cast, lined with rocks and boulders, many of them covered with brightly coloured lichen.

The rock Samphire growing in the cracks was a lovely bright lime green that contrasted with the orange lichen and the dark grey of the granite rocks.

I decided to interpret them in a hand embroidered stitchpic, coloured with inktense crayons then stitched in various yarns.

This is a sprig of Eucalyptus I picked from a beautiful tree we came across in a park in the town.  The seed heads are an interesting shape, like little bells.

 

Our next stop was at Angers, a town we've often driven through but this was the first time we stopped to explore.  We found a handy campsite, only 3 kilometres from town with access to the wonderful cycle and footpaths that  lead along the rivers and through the countryside as well as into the town. We spent a couple of happy days exploring the banks of the river Maine where it joins the Loire .

 

The mistletoe covered trees have always fascinated me and after drawing them I just had to make this embroidery using various scraps collaged onto green linen.  There's nothing nicer than sitting in the sun after a tiring cycle ride stitching a new picture!

 

We had a brief stopover at Saumur and took a walk into town in the hot sunshine when we had to stop for a rest in the shade to admire the chateau.

Our final campsite was the municipal at Chinon where we've stayed many times before.  We were lucky enough to find our favourite pitch available with this lovely view of the castle clock tower above the trees.

 

I'll finish with this sunset view of the castle reflected in the river Vienne taken from the campsite, now you can understand why this is our favourite place!

 

OCTOBER CATCH UP

 

What a busy month I've had so far! I'm off to England next week so I've been really busy making stuff to take for birthday and Christmas presents.  So here is a catch up of a few recent projects, but some will have to wait till later in the year!

 

Firstly this is the needlepainting I made of the sketch of the river at Chinon using organza, painted with acrylic inks for the water and in the trees.

 

In case you missed it here's the sketch that inspired the embroidery.

 

 

One day, sitting by the sea I was attracted by the different colours I could see in the water and when I came home I got out my fabric and yarns and stitched this little piece. I realised it was the perfect shape for a bookmark so I tidied up the edges and ironed on some backing, then gave it to Joanna who was staying at the time. 

 

 

Since then I've made several and given them away as cards with a simple mount that allows the bookmark to be removed for use ( for those of us who still prefer paper to electronic books!)

 

 

 

My friend Luba has given me so much inspiration with the fabric samples from her time as a fashion director that I wanted to make something special to say thank you.  I embroidered the picture while the lilies were in bloom and then bound it onto a notebook.  She was delighted when I gave it to her last weekend.

 

Here is one of my lily sketches from last year.  This year I sat by the pot, stitching and copying the shapes of the petals and adding the wasp when I realised that they were more attracted to the flowers than the bees were.

 

My lichen embroidery turned into a book cover too, a present for someone special.

 

I found a few scraps of this fun fabric from 'Get Cutie' in Brighton, part of the pack Justine gave me for my birthday.

 

 

I made them into a pencil case for Jimmy to go with the book I made for him in August.

 

 

Here's the book which he loved and drew lots of pictures in when he was here  for a few days holiday.

 

 

And finally my new hat.  No, I'm not planning to wear it in public, it's part of my fancy dress costume for Justine's party in November.  The theme is games and I've chosen to go as the black queen chess piece, hopefully I'll have some photos to share with you when I come back home in a few weeks!

 

I've prepared my sketching kit and a few yarns and fabrics to be working on while I'm away and I'm even hoping I'll be able to pluck up the courage to do some embroidery on the train to Paris and then the Eurostar (with Justine's encouragement).

 

MY 300th BLOG!

Hello friends and followers, I've come to a landmark, my 300th blog post and I've decided to celebrate with a look back over the last 5 years of blogging.  This hydrangea was the first picture I posted on Nature sketchers after I was invited to join by Cathy Johnson who runs the Artist's Journal Workshop group on Facebook.  She had seen my drawings and thought I might be interested in contributing and to qualify for the group I had to have my own blog, hence the birth of Colours in the Breizh.

In January of 2012 I started to keep a nature journal to record the happenings in and around my home here in Brittany.  I really enjoyed the discipline of going out every day to find something to draw in my sketchbook and then later I re-visited all the pages again to post on the blog.  I've shown the book to several people here and I hope I've inspired some to start the drawing and observing habit too.

By the end of 2012 I was looking for a new project and discovered the 75 day challenge organised by Brenda Swenson, a watercolour artist and sketcher in America. The aim was to draw for 75 days using only pens, so I sorted out my rather large collection and found I had all sorts from fine liners, through brush pens and markers to biros.  At the end of the challenge I received my 'Artistic License' from Brenda and a nice handwritten card congratulating me on completing.

I found a black sketchbook at a car boot sale locally for 1euro and after covering it with a pretty fabric it became another occasional nature journal.  It's quite a challenge to find the right colours that stand out on black paper but I found it a useful learning experience.  I was using my newly discovered Museum coloured pencils which have a rich pigment that works well on a dark background.

My main love of sketching is to draw when we are on holiday and as we go to so many different places in our camping car I usually fill a sketchbook each time we go away.  I take photographs too but they don't get looked at nearly as much as the sketches which are also a useful way to identify places and dates when we're discussing them later.  In fact this sketch of Chinon chateau is different from the one I drew several years earlier before the extensive renovations were undertaken.

Another challenge I took part in was the 2015 January challenge where a different subject is posted for each day of the month.  It was fascinating to see all the other participants' interpretations of the same subject as we all posted them to a special page on Facebook.

When we go to England to see the family I love to draw my surroundings as well as trying to sketch live portraits. Joanna had moved to a new house in 2014 so I drew the lounge while we all relaxed on a Sunday afternoon.

Just occasionally I copy photos to complement the 'plein air' sketches, especially when there isn't time to draw everything I see!  These sheep at a farmer's festival were such fun to capture as well as the horses and the snail I drew afterwards.  I have a small tin of coloured pencil stubs that I take on our travels so my palette is limited which means I have to be a bit creative with my interpretation, as you can see I've used a lilac for the shadows which I think makes the picture more interesting.

I love to make my own clothes and I'm always on the lookout for interesting fabrics so when I found a stall in the market at Tenerife selling pretty sarongs I couldn't resist. In fact over 4 years I bought several different ones and each year when we returned I went to show the girls on the stall what I had made, needless to say they were delighted.  This is the latest one which I eventually made with 2 sarongs so there was a nice long piece left over to make a scarf.

In January 2012 I took a bookbinding class so I could learn how to make my own sketchbooks and it has changed my life.  Now I'm always looking out for interesting fabric to cover them with and unusual paper to draw on.  When a friend gave me a stash of old maps I made some of them into a couple of sketchbooks with hand-made drawing paper samples stuck to the plain back of the map and a square of gesso on the map side to draw on. The gesso was a bit hard on my drawing pens but I had a lot of fun trying out the different papers with different media.  Another trial and error experience!

I have a friend, Rose Jones, who is a brilliant photographer who has given me permission to use her photos as inspiration,  This one is done in pen only using triplus pens in different colours.  It's quite exciting to try out new products recommended by friends and most of them work very well for me, although there are a few lying untouched that I keep trying but then abandon again!

My family are my greatest love and drawing their portraits gives me a lot of pleasure.  I have a revolving gallery in our hallway where I frame the latest drawings as they are completed.  This one of Sarah with her cat Odin in graphite is a favourite.  I have a folder with all the portraits in and it's fascinating to see my progress over the last 15 or more years.

In the last year or so I've started to move in a different direction with my art thanks to my friend Luba who was the director of the Belarus fashion company. She gave me bagfulls of  samples which have inspired me to start using them as stitched collages using my sewing machine.  Each time she comes back from Minsk she brings another batch of amazing silks and linens, wools and jerseys in fabulous colours and textures that I can't resist playing with and turning into interpretations of my photos taken on our travels, like this one of Roussillon.

Well, I hope you've enjoyed our trip down memory lane, maybe if you have any friends interested in seeing what I do you could pass on my name, I would love to increase my readership.

A LITTLE TRIP TO THE LOIRE

 

Last Saturday we were in a state of shock after the Brexit results and very worried about our future as expats living in France, not to mention our drop in income due to the pound falling against the euro.

We decided to go away for a few days to relax and try to get ourselves back to a normal state of mind. 

 

We had packed up the camping car and prepared to leave early on Sunday morning when our neighbours called by to say 'bonjour' and ended up having a rosé with us, I'm sure he can hear a cork being pulled out of a bottle from across the road!  We told them our plans and Marius said as he didn't have any plans for the week, maybe they would come along too. 

 

By 7 am on Sunday morning we were surprised to see Marius's camper car already out on the road ready to depart when we did as we hadn't actually taken his suggestion very seriously!  We set off and they followed us all the way to Saumur where were allocated 2 places side by side.  Marius parked alongside, only 6 feet from us, just a bit too close for my liking so the next morning we moved to a plot on the other side of the hedge from him to give ourselves a bit of privacy.

 

 

We had arrived in time to go to the local pizzeria for lunch and while we were there we heard a lot of noise and then bands playing outside in the street.  We discovered it was the annual carnival of giants and that we were in a prime position to see the whole parade as it set off around the town.  I only had my tiny tinted paper sketchbook with me and a magic pencil and managed to get a few scribbles down but not much worth looking at as I was drawing standing up and we had drunk a couple of glasses of wine with our lunch which made my hand a bit wobbly!



 

                                          

We stayed in Saumur for 3 nights, walking into the town each morning for a coffee and lunch and relaxing at the camp in the afternoons.  There was an outdoor pool with a fantastic view of the chateau that I spent one afternoon drawing in the sketch at the top of the post and as you can see the weather was rather variable but warm.

We've visited Saumur several times in the past and this view I drew on site is one I have already  done as a birthday card for Bob in 2006 and I have also another copied from my original photo taken over 35 years ago.

 

After 3 days we needed a change of scenery and moved on to Chinon, only 40 kilometres east on the river Vienne which joins the Loire at Montsoreau.  We've been here at least 4 times over the years and really like the location of the camp with it's views of the chateau and proximity to the lovely historic town famous for it's connection to Joan of Arc.  We had another 3 days here, strolling into town, having meals out and drinks with Marius and Martine but we were craving our own company and managed a day 'à deux' on Friday when we left them to their own devices.

 

On Saturday the weather was still rather cloudy and the forecast not very good for the next few days so we decided to call it a day and go home.  Marius received a call from a friend and announced that he was going on to La Rochelle to see him and we set off back to Perros.  I drew this little sketch in my camper car journal to remind me of the experience...

CHATEAUX OF THE LOIRE 2

 

The last time we came to Chinon was in 2006 and of course I sat and sketched the chateau from our plot on the campsite.  As you can see it looked a complete ruin at the time and although we toured the castle and found some of the rooms complete most of it was pretty derelict. 

 

 

Imagine our surprise to come here 8 years later to find a beautiful renovation had taken place.  All the buildings in the central part have been rebuilt and roofed over and look fantastic.  The town council has also installed a lift to take visitors to the top of the cliff as the walk up is quite difficult along sloping cobbled paths and old worn steps.  However we did walk back down to see the views and back gardens as we always like to get a feel for a town by strolling around.

 

 

This is the western end of the castle with the 'Moulin tower' at the end of the walls watching over the approaches from the top of the cliff down to the River Vienne which is a tributary of the Loire.

 

 

The eastern end has the belfry which is called 'Le tour de l'Horloge' and dates from the 14th century.  In fact the bell has been ringing the hours since 1399!  It also houses an interesting museum devoted to Joan of Arc.  I climbed to the top and walked around the balcony you can see around the outside when we came in 2006 and was rewarded with fabulous views over the countryside.

 

 

The campsite at Chinon is run by the town council and has plenty of open space right down to the river although we were advised not to park too close to the water as it was rather damp and we could have got bogged down.  We chose a sunny spot next to a small sycamore tree, just beginning to open it's gold and green leaves which looked fabulous against the clear blue sky.

 

 

We stayed here for 3 days revisiting the town and relaxing in the sun as well as cycling along the lovely quiet lanes along the river.  On the Sunday we had a delicious meal out in a simple restaurant with a pretty terrace where the home cooked food was delicious.   The friendly proprietor was happy to give me his recipes and let me photograph the dishes unlike some celebrity chefs we've heard about recently!