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Friday 27 September 2019

Inspiration found in Holland and Portugal

I just spent two weeks travelling to Holland and also Portugal. It always takes me some time to relax enough to sketch in new places. Here I'll share my sketchbook pages.


This little car was perfect to get me in the sketching mood. It was parked at the end of my cousin's street so I sat on the sidewalk with my back to a wall and hoped the owner would come out and move it.




The view out of VRBO window in Lisbon, Portugal. I took lots of photos of tiles but also wanted some in my sketchbook.


There were so many of these alleyways covered with graffiti and lots of ramps and stairs to get you around this hilly city. There was even an outdoor escalator and elevators just to get you to another level of the city.



We did lots of waiting in airports. Such a waste of time....unless you are sketching (or gazing at your phone). I think my people sketches are improving. At least I can tell who these people are supposed to be.


 Back in Holland we visited several windmills. I never get tired of the look of them on the Dutch landscape.


Vacations come to an end much too fast. We actually had pretty good seats in the front of the plane just behind business class.


Friday 20 September 2019

Art is Everywhere

In our familiar surroundings, we take for granted what is around us because it is familiar but as soon as you are in new or unfamiliar surroundings, you start to see "with new eyes". Lisbon, Portugal is just full of art.


Some buildings are tiled from top to bottom with ceramic tiles.






Hand painted tiles are also used to tell stories.


Even the streets and sidewalks are patterned with various coloured stones.







There are many sculptures and religious art works.











And, of course, there is a prolific graffiti culture. Some is commissioned and a lot is vandalism.










Saturday 14 September 2019

Art in Strange Places

While on vacation, I always have my eyes open for art. It comes in all kinds of ways. It may be architecture, sculpture, textile, painting, ceramics etc. While out wandering the streets near our apartment in Lisbon, Portugal, where many of the surrounding buildings are being renovated, we discovered some art that was out of the ordinary and in a very unexpected place.

We almost missed it completely, because it was dusk but also because there was a lot of construction in the area. On retracing our steps back to the apartment we looked up and then did a double take.




We thought this was just a construction barrier, which, of course it was, but looking closer we noticed some identifiable shapes. An artist had used a drill and possibly other tools to scrape of the top layer of plaster from some plaster board to create his art. In the photo above you can see how we missed it. Unless you were standing right in front of it, you couldn't see the images clearly. Below are some of the other images.





The signature of the artist was "vhils". Googling this signature, we found that the artist's real name is Alexandre Farto who is a Portugese artist who was born in 1987. His art is called bas-relief carving technique which literally "scratches the surface". He has had exhibitions around the world in both indoor and outdoor settings. His art reflects identity, and life in contemporary urban societies and their saturated environments. He was particularly inspired by the way the city walls absorb the social and historical changes that take place around them. And there is a wealth of history in this city as well as MANY walls.


Friday 6 September 2019

"Alles en Nog Wat"

My title translated from Dutch means, Everything and then More. My latest completed project was my zine which took a lot of my time and attention to complete so I haven't really been working on anything else that I can blog about today.

I will post a few photos of some little things I have been working on.



This is the title cover of my zine. I posted a flip through of the complete zine on my Sketchbook Skool site and received some really encouraging comments from fellow zine makers. Makes me want to do another. If you want a copy, let me know as they are going fast.


I continue to do baby portraits but I am a bit behind. The babies keep coming!


I am also continuing to try to use up my scrap fabric so I've made a few more fabric cards with them.






Recently had two grandchildren become a year older and  gave them little portrait fabric cards.



I will be travelling for the next 2 weeks so I doubt that I will be blogging but I am going to try. I will be posting on my instagram account so you can follow me there if you like. www.instagram.com/aspeel/