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.

Virtual Paintout in Sardinia

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Via Verdi in Talana

Watercolour and crayon

©2011 Charlene Brown

The Virtual Paintout is in Sardinia this month.  As you may have noticed, I love painting landscapes that include mountains, so I first searched out a location in Google Satellite view.  This is my favourite of the many mountain and sea views I found in a very short time.  Here is a link to it. 

I’m taking a short break from posting the paintings I did on our European river cruise…  I'm posting them chronologically, with the next one up being from Dürnstein in Austria, and I’m waiting for a postcard I painted at the same location to appear on A Postcard From My Walk so I can show the two pictures at the same time.

Not your average 'Turrets and Domes' tour of Europe

 Incinerator and turbines

Watercolour, crayon and marker

©2011 Charlene Brown

The orderly (and beautifully painted) series of turrets and domes I had envisioned from our river cruise in Europe went off on a tangent in Vienna. I became fascinated with the work of Friedensreich Hundertwasser, a fabulous painter whose work covers several buildings around Vienna, such as the garbage incinerator/district heating plant, Fernwärmewerk Spittelau, I’ve painted here.  In case you’re wondering, it was only when he was promised that the plant would be equipped with the most modern emission-purification technology and that 60,000 apartments would be heated, thus making Vienna's air cleaner, that Hundertwasser, an ardent environmentalist, agreed to do the design. I’ve added some wind turbines, seen on the way out of town on a side-trip to Bratislava, Slovakia, to complete the picture.

The adventure begins...

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The view from our ship

Watercolour and crayon

©2011 Charlene Brown

Before we began our cruise from Budapest to Amsterdam, we were docked just downriver from the Hungarian Parliament and the famous Chain Bridge. To almost everyone’s surprise, the (notoriously brownish-green) Danube was actually blue for part of the time we were there!  (Not as blue as I’ve painted it, but pretty spectacular, nonetheless.)

This was the first of many wondrous and very paintable sights we were to see over the next two weeks. The resulting paintings didn’t exactly form themselves into the coherent series I had thought might result from this adventure... as you will see when I post the ones that underwent a kind of ‘ambush by Hundertwasser.’

Just another pretty face

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Mt. Robson

Watercolour and crayon

©2011 Charlene Brown

About twenty years ago I attended a watercolour workshop in the Canadian Rockies given by well-known American artist, Barbara Nechis.  We were in the Bow Valley surrounded by spectacular peaks, and Barbara reminded us that some of them had been painted hundreds, if not thousands, of times. She went on to suggest that, under the circumstances, we consider carefully whether or not each of the paintings we were about to produce really ‘needed’ to be done… Then she explained some unique approaches and showed us some fascinating painting techniques that could result in something more than just another pretty mountain scene.

I’ve tried to heed Barbara’s advice – working on something approaching her wonderfully loose, semi-abstract style – but, in fact, have produced way too many straight-up pretty mountain scenes in the years since that workshop. Perhaps I’ll select a series of these and either ‘abstract’ them or re-do them in the throes of a really dramatic mountain storm…

September at the international postcard exchange

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Japanese Garden near Victoria

Watercolour

©2011 Charlene Brown

This was the September card I sent to Desirée Habicht in California, as part of our international  postcard exchange, a Postcard from my Walk.  It shows the Japanese garden, situated in the deep ravine that runs from the main Butchart Gardens to the ocean. It is so shady that everything, including the stone lanterns, is covered in moss. Sometimes I think it’s my favourite part of the Butchart Gardens.

There’s a new post every couple of days on the Postcard from my Walk blog, and the quality and variety of the artwork is fascinating! Have a look at my post about the beautifully-drawn September card I received fromAlbrecht in Germany.

Virtual Paintout in New Orleans

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St Louis Cathedral from Decatur Street

Watercolour and crayon

©2011 Charlene Brown

I first painted this cathedral from a Google Streetview of Chartres Street that included lots of French Quarter architecture. This seemed like a good idea at the time, but unfortunately, Chartres was photographed very early in the morning and was completely deserted.  It was only after that painting was finished that I realized this straight-on view from the other side of Jackson Square was much more appealing.  I’ve added my first St Louis Cathedral painting to the sidewalk display that appears in the Google Streetview from Decatur Street.