SKETCHBOOK NO 1 PART 5

 

Well, it took a lot of head scratching and button pressing but here at last is the final part of my first sketchbook.  After changing to Windows 10 Bob found the computer search engine wasn't compatible with blogger, we've changed it now and so far so good, fingers crossed!

 

 

Almost every summer when we had the boat we sailed across the channel to France and then on to Guernsey where we moored in the town marina at St peter port.

 

These three sketches were all drawn from my seat at the back of the boat as we sat in the sunshine.  There are plenty more sketches of the town and island dotted through all my sketchbooks, some of which I'm sure you have seen already.

 

While we were working we spent every weekend on the boat when the weather was fine and as we were moored in Portsmouth harbour we had the whole of the Solent to sail in with all it's lovely harbours and pretty anchorages.

 

Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight soon became our favourite destination as we could pick up a buoy outside the main harbour and enjoy the space around us instead of going inside with all the crowds.  We used to take the ferry ashore to walk over the downs to Freshwater on the south side of the island.

 

We had lovely views from our boat and an endless supply of subjects like this beautiful old motor yacht that anchored a bit further out from us.

 

When the tide was coming in the boat turned so that we had this view of the harbour entrance from our seats on the deck.  There is a very long wooden pier next to the ferry terminal which is used for the boats coming across the Solent from the mainland at Lymington.

 

The view continues towards the old church and the rooftops of the George hotel with it's excellent restaurant.

 

The western extremity of the Isle of Wight is marked by this red and white lighthouse at the end of the Needles rocks.  We often sailed past here going to France or the west country and the current through the narrow part of the channel can be as much as 8 or 10 knots so it was always important to plan our departure to go with the tide!

 

SKETCHBOOK NO 1 PART 4

 

Every year from 1992 we took our summer holidays on our boat and soon found some beautiful places that we returned to on a regular basis.  We alternated between the south west of England, the Channel Islands and the north and west coasts of Brittany.

 

L'Aberwrach is at the western extremity just before you turn south to go down the chenal de Four towards Brest and beyond.  It's a deep estuary with moorings close to a charming village with lots of lovely views in all directions.

 

This is the tallest lighthouse in France, Ile Vierge and it's visible from far out to sea.  There are boat trips out to visit it but we never got around to going.

 

We usually spent a week of our holiday in this tranquil place, going ashore in the dinghy to shop and eat in the friendly creperie or pizzeria.  As you can see from these early sketches I was busy practising with my fine pens, using the textures I learned from the Claudia Nice book.

 

The walking was fantastic, along the shores and over the sand dunes to many beautiful beaches. One day we discovered the plage Sainte Marguerite where the kite surfing championships take place every year and stopped to watch for a while and do a bit of sketching.

 

Another time  it was almost deserted.

 

 

A favourite pastime of the French is 'peche à pied' which happens every low spring tide.  Families come out with their buckets and spades and forks to search for shellfish and shrimps in the pools and rocks.

 

Here's another lovely white beach, this time close to home where we walked when we stayed on the boat in Perros marina before we came here to live.  I can actually remember Bob looking in the estate agent's window and saying how nice it would be to retire to Perros, long before we decided to make the move.

Next time we're going to visit the Channel islands and the Isle of Wight, see you soon! 

 

SKETCHBOOK NO 1 PART 3

 

The first time we went to Trebeurden it was after meeting some friends who had been there and were singing it's praises but all we had for the navigation was the brochure they gave us and a general chart showing the way from Perros.  We found our way in between the rocks and found a lovely sheltered marina which we visited every time we came to France after then and after buying a proper chart!

 

When you arrive outside the marina there is a waiting area with several buoys to tie up to while waiting for the tide to rise high enough to pass over the sill that holds back the water.  If the weather was calm we often stayed on the buoy and enjoyed the tranquillity and the beautiful views.

 

The marina walls are made of piled up granite blocks which as you can see from this sketch rise high above our heads when the tide is low.  I've lost count of the times I've sat here and drawn the boats and the pine trees you can see at the top of the post.

 

This island is on the other side of the moorings looking north and is a sanctuary for gulls in the breeding season but in summer is popular with families for their Sunday picnics.  We used to sit on our boat and watch as the experienced locals sailed their boats between the rocks to take a shortcut out to sea, something we did not have the nerve to try!

 

There were always beautiful sunsets at Trebeurden but the best way to see them was to climb to the top of the hill next to the marina and look west out to sea beyond the chaotic rockscape.

 

This is the local traditional trip boat that's moored in the marina at Perros, it's to be seen sailing most days in the season, crowded with people trying their hand at sailing or just enjoying the ride.

 

One of the islands off the beach here is called Ile Rouzic and is a famous reserve for gannets, apparently 21,000 couples live there.  We always saw these beautiful birds when we went sailing in the local waters, usually gliding just above the waves, but it was a real treat to see them fishing one day, dive bombing the shoals of mackerel.

 

 

We spent many happy times sitting on our boat in Perros harbour, even in bad weather, sheltering under the awning watching thunderstorms over the hills.

 

Panning left from the picture of the storm you see the harbour wall where the fishing boats tie up to unload the catch before returning to the deep water moorings just outside the marina.

Next time we'll go a bit further along the coast to l'Aberwrach, another of our favourite places.

SKETCHBOOK NO 1 PART 2

 

After returning from a few years working in Hong Kong, my daughter Joanna decided to buy her first home and after a lot of searching we found a little Edwardian end terrace house in Farnborough.  It still had some period features like this roll topped bath and an old fashioned chain flush loo.  She worked hard to decorate and tidy up and I'll never forget the state of the kitchen when we started to clean under the cupboards!

 

This is a bit romanticised as there were really high hedges in front but that vine over the door was a passion flower which was laden with blooms in summer.  Joanna worked hard in her garden and had a lovely display at the back with pots full of pansies and geraniums.

 

I made some red roman blinds for her lounge windows and her sister Justine made the white curtains and supplied her old sofas. A dining table and chairs came form other members of the family and we all helped out with crockery and cooking utensils etc.

 

 

Gradually Joanna built herself a lovely home which she lived in and loved for several years.  Bob and I stayed there for 3 months between selling our house and moving to France in 2002. 

 

Here's a sketch of the pots I gave Joanna when they were in my last English garden.  I couldn't bring them all here so they were given a lovely new home at Jo's.

Next time I'll take you for a visit to Trebeurden one of our favourite holiday sailing destinations.

 

 

SKETCHBOOK NO 1

 

I've decided it's time to scan all my sketchbooks and started with no1, a small spiral bound Bristol card pad, which I bought in a wonderful old fashioned stationery shop, one of my customers when I was a sales agent.  I had got to the town early for an appointment and thought I could pass the time drawing this old pine tree in the car park as I ate my sandwich lunch.

 

At the same time I bought a book by Claudia Nice called Watercolour techniques with pen and ink, in which the author demonstrates textures and ways of depicting different surfaces.  I used a fine black micron pen and later bought a Rapidograph, a refillable draughting pen but I didn't look after it properly and it broke after a couple of years.  I found a neat plastic folder to keep my pen, pad, a few watercolour pencils and a waterbrush all together in the car so I could sketch at any moment.

 

As a sales agent I covered the south east of England so I went to many interesting places to sell my wares, mainly decorative stationery, cards and record books as well as jewellery, toiletries and picture frames.  This is a windmill in the pretty Kent town of Cranbrook where I had several customers and I used to spend at least a morning there popping back to the car to collect my various bags of samples for different gift shop owners to see.

 

I always carried my sketchbook with me at the weekends as well to use when we relaxed on our boat which was moored on a buoy in Portsmouth harbour.  Porchester castle was not far from our boat and this is the view looking north as I sat on the deck on a summer's afternoon.

 

The south downs were lovely in the afternoon sun as I drove home after a busy day and I couldn't resist stopping to draw the rolling hills and clouds.

 

Looking the other way to the east on the boat we could see Portsmouth naval port with aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious moored alongside.

 

One of our suppliers was St Justin, a Celtic jewellery manufacturer, based at Penzance in Cornwall.  We were invited to visit the factory for a sales conference and had the great fortune to be put up in a hotel at Marazion, directly opposite Mont St Michel.  What a great opportunity to draw this fantastic edifice from the comfort of our room.

 

I even had time one day, sitting in a traffic jam to sketch these daisies I could see at the road side.

I hope you've enjoyed this first look at my early sketches and there are lots more to come.

There are a few older sketchbooks too but they are rather scruffy, drawn in pencil that has smudged over the years.

PLOUMANAC'H, France's favourite village

 

If you've read my profile at the side of my blog you'll know that I live in a beautiful part of northern Brittany in France so when a recent poll elected a part of our commune, Ploumanach, the favourite village of the French I was not surprised that it should get the recognition it deserves.

 

We've lived here now for over 12 years and visited for at least 10 years before that so I know it pretty well.  My sketchbooks date back to 2003 and I've found many sketches and a few watercolours to share with you.

 

The village is in the heart of the 'Cote de Granite rose,' a wonderful coastline of weathered pink granite rocks weathered by the elements into strange shapes and all the buildings use the same stone so the whole place has a lovely rosy glow. 

It was featured on national TV and the mayor laid on a typical evening for the presentation with fresh local seafood and our prize winning 'Bagad' group playing Breton music.

 

 

The inner harbour has a couple of tide mills that were used centuries ago to work the wheels to grind grain, but now are used for small art exhibitions. There are moorings for shallow draught boats in the inner harbour, accessible only at high water as there is a sill to keep the water in at low tide.

 

 

 

The first time we tried to come in with our boat we were turned away as we had too deep a draught to be able to stay afloat. When we walked back here from Perros the next day we were amazed at the difference between high and low water, there was no water in this channel and the traditional boats moored there had legs to keep them upright in the mud!

 

There are lots of little fishing boats tied to the wall here that float when the tide comes in as well as several traditional boats that take part in the annual regatta.

 

This is a very early drawing from my first sketchbook, I think I've improved a bit since then!

 

 

Every year we look forward to the 'Vieux Greements' festival of the sea with it's traditional boats on display, decked in flags and the opportunity to spend an evening with our friends eating mussels and mackerel and listening to local 'chants de marins' and celtic bands.

 

I was inspired by the bright colours of the tenders parked by the harbour wall for this sketch.

 

Around the coast the rock formations are breathtaking, something we tend to forget till we take new friends to see the sights and see their reactions to the wonderful sights.

 

 

I've sketched this one lots of times and here's the watercolour I did about 12 years ago before we moved here.

I hope you've enjoyed my vision of our now famous village, I think I'll have to scan some more of those early sketches to share with you, what do you think?

RETURN TO FRANCE 2015 3

 

Although we were disappointed to have left St Jean de Luz earlier than we had hoped, we were delighted to find ourselves at Chateau Maubats at just the right time to be able to go to the evening farmer's féte, celebrating all the local produce of the region, animal as well as vegetable.

This is a group of  dancers from the marais (marsh) area near the coast and someone explained to me that the shepherds use stilts to walk with their sheep, to save getting their feet wet and also to be able to see them all from a distance.  The girls were beautifully dressed in their colourful costumes and danced in a circle surrounded by the men and boys, also dancing on their stilts.

 

Monsegur, where the féte took place is a small bastide town in the middle of beautiful rolling countryside.  A bastide is a town with a central square surrounded with arcades giving shelter from the hot sun as well as rain.  The market building is usually in the middle instead of the church as in predominantly Catholic towns.

The fete took place in the car park just outside the town and was filled with stalls of cattle, sheep and poultry.  There was a parade of these magnificent 'chevaux de trait' working horses, mostly well behaved except the bottom left one, the Breton horse, who got rather frisky when he saw the crowds admiring him.

 

There were several different types of cattle but I was really taken with these 'Blondes d'Aquitaine.  The way they were standing looked as if they were having a quiet gossip in the middle of all the activity!

 

The sheep were a breed especially grown for their meat and this group were waiting patiently to take part in the sheep shearing display.  They looked quite different after their hot coats were taken off!

 

The main part of the féte was the opportunity to taste all the different foods produced by the farmers showing their animals.  There were 20 different stalls selling everything from chicken, steak, lamb, bread, cheese and duck breast which we had for our dinner.  These snails which had been raised a few kilometres down the road were cooked in 2 different sauces, parsley and garlic and tomato and herbs, so we had some of each and I can honestly say they were the tastiest, tenderest snails I've ever eaten. 

We washed it all down with a delicious bottle of Robert's Bordeaux superior red wine as of course Guylaine was manning their stall being one of the local wine producers.

We had a very pleasant evening, chatting to the locals next to us as we ate on the long tables and were sad to leave as it started to get dark and it was time to go home to our camper car with our new friends, Georges and Janine who were also staying on the vineyard.  The next morning we awoke to more rain so we decided to set off for the last leg of our journey home.