Virtual Paintout in Arles

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Roman Amphitheatre

Watercolour, crayon and marker

©2011 Charlene Brown

The Virtual Paintout is in Arles,France, this month  – and, unlike the last few Paintout locations, this is a place I have visited for real.  It’s about 15 years ago now, but I recall being rather disappointed trying to find Van Gogh-related buildings or streets, and deciding at the time that this Roman ruin was the most interesting place in town! Here’s the link to this Streetview of the Rond-point des Arènes which I’d have to admit has ‘tourist trap’ written all over it!  I say this with some fondness, however… Many of my favourite places happen to be tourist traps – including my hometown of Banff in Canada.

When you miss your connection at Heathrow...

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Wembley Stadium from Terminal 5

Watercolour and marker

©2011 Charlene Brown

On the way home from our river cruise we were delayed just enough arriving in Heathrow to miss the once-a day flight to Vancouver. The next day, at about the time I’d promised to phone the family to say we’d arrived safely, I called instead to tell them I was becoming something of an expert on Terminal 5! 

Our son-in-law suggested I paint it… which seemed like a terrible idea at first, but it is quite a nice terminal, and after a few hours we noticed a mysterious arch on the horizon, and some of the many BA fins framed it nicely, so I took some pictures intending to identify and paint it when we got home.

We had thought it might be one of the huge structures built for the 2012 Olympics, but didn’t find anything on Google, so I showed one of the photos to my friends at A Postcard from my Walk, and two of them said it was Wembley Stadium (one mentioned the arch we'd seen was added five years ago and cost a fortune).  And our Olympic theory almost worked out -- Wikipedia advised us that Wembley was one of the main venues for the 1948 Olympics!

That important first step in forging the Dutch Masters

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Windmills at Zaanse Schans

Watercolour and crayon

©2011 Charlene Brown

At the end of our cruise, we had a full day in and around Amsterdam, and we went out to a polder – land reclaimed from the sea. The Dutch began the polder system in the 13^th century, building dykes, then using canals and windmill pumps to drain the land and keep it dry. We walked out to one of these windmills and climbed up inside it for a close look at the gears connecting the blades to the grindstones.  

Our guide explained that the windmills didn’t just mill grain – some (including the very one we were in, apparently) were used to grind pigments for the Dutch Masters of the 17^th century. He stressed the importance of the quality standards maintained in sourcing the ingredients for the paint used in ‘The Golden Age of Dutch Painting,’ mentioning that only Lapis Lazuli from Afghanistan could produce the exact blue demanded by the Masters.

I mentioned that they have beautiful Lapis Lazuli in Chile, and he allowed that the Chilean product was indeed quite good, “But you’ll never be able to restore an old Dutch Master (or forge a new one) with Lapis Lazuli from anywhere but Afghanistan!”  It goes without saying (and he didn’t say it) that any Dutch masterpiece I attempted wouldn't fool anybody no matter where my Lapis Lazuli came from…

Dining at a castle on the Rhine

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Marksburg Castle

Watercolour and crayon sketch

©2011 Charlene Brown

After a day of cruising through the spectacular Rhine Gorge with castles and precipitous vineyards lining both sides of the river, we arrived at the stunning white Marksburg Castle. This 12^th century structure looms over the rose garden town of Braubach, where we boarded buses that got us to within 800 m. of the castle. After that the road was too narrow and we hiked the rest of the way to a fantastic medieval banquet, complete with an amazingly gymnastic jester.  As we were not going to return from the castle until quite late, our cruise ship left without us (can’t go losing your slot in the tightly packed Rhine traffic schedule!) and the buses took us several kilometers downriver to catch up.   

The Way of Saint James

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Jakobsweg Main-Taubertal

Watercolour and crayon

©2011 Charlene Brown

At our next stop, Wertheim, one of our excursion choices was a hike up the Tauber. Roughly the same group that climbed up to the castle ruin at Durnstein turned out for this one. When asked if we wanted to take the 5km or 10k route, I was the only one to speak up, saying that 10k sounded doable… and then was usually dead last as we made our way up the river to Waldenhausen, crossed a bridge and climbed up through terraced gardens and orchards to a high plateau that took us back to the castle above Wertheim.  I should add that the main reason for this tail-dragging was that I kept stopping to take pictures of our fascinating surroundings – the most surprising of which were these markers on another trail we followed for a short distance, identifying it as the Main-Taubertal section of the Jakobsweg, the name by which the Way of Saint James is known in Germany.

I hope some day to walk parts of this route in Spain where it is known as the Camino de Santiago… Actually, I was under the mistaken impression the whole route was in Spain, so it’s ironic I got a (very small) start on the project in Germany.

Shore excursion on the Romantische Straße

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Rothenburg from the castle garden

Watercolour and crayon

©2011 Charlene Brown

The day we docked in Würzburg on the Main River, we set off on a bus trip to the famous Medieval village of Rothenburg. The ‘Romantic Road’ that got us there and the village itself provided an enchanting non-stop series of sketching possibilities… but it wasn’t until our walking tour ended in the castle garden just outside one corner of the wall that I had the time to sketch anything at all!  I decided to try to capture this panoramic view of another corner of the wall on a two-page spread in my sketchbook, but neglected to match up the skyline when I flipped the book to do the second page.  Actually I realized what I’d done soon after starting the right side of the panorama, but decided to leave the skyline near the top of the page in order to have room for some of the buildings at the base of the hill.  The odd arrangement shown here is the result of scanning the pages separately and Photoshopping the ramparts back into position.

Cruising through the Danube-Main Canal

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Thrift Lock

Watercolour, crayon and marker

©2011 Charlene Brown

On the eighth day of our cruise we entered the 171-kilometre Danube-Main Canal. This still-controversial final link in a navigable water route across Europe was first envisioned by Charlemange in 793, but was completed just twenty years ago after many false starts.

Our 68-meter ascent to the crest altitude at the continental divide was followed by a pretty dramatic 175-meter descent beginning with the three deepest locks.  Because the natural in-flow at this altitude is relatively modest, ‘thrift locks’ store and recycle 60% of the water needed. As the lock is emptied, water flows to the highest of three basins, and then, apparently to the others – we were only able to watch the first part of the process before dropping into the eight-story deep lock.

My painting was still heavily influenced by Hundertwasser, and may have continued to be, but I ran out of masking fluid.   

Cruising up the Danube

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View from a nicely-located prison

Watercolour and crayon

©2011 Charlene Brown

During the night after our side trip to Bratislava, we continued up the Danube and spent the morning in the picturesque Austrian village of Dürnstein. 

Two outstanding features of this largely Medieval town are the very Baroque blue tower near the river bank, and the ruins of a 12^th century castle high above the town. This castle was where Richard the Lionheart was imprisoned following his capture on his way home from the Third Crusade in 1193. A group of us from the cruise ship, mostly Australians and a few Canadians, climbed up to what’s left of the prison where I got a start on this sketch of the town and the lovely surrounding area – part of the wine region of the Walchau Valley.   

Back on board, I was able to sketch a postcard, currently posted on A Postcard From My Walk, from the top deck as we manoeuvred back into the channel and sailed on up to Melk.