Trip to Bretagny - Part 1 - Festival des Carnets de Voyage

It’s already been a week since I came back from my trip to Bretagny, but I’m still under the strong influence of this wonderful adventure… I received an invitation from Lapin to be a part of the USk group at the 9th festival of Travel and Reportage Sketchbooks « ici & ailleurs » in Brest. After the expo, Lapin invited us to join him on the trip to the Ouessant island. I had no idea what I was going to! It was a little over a week, but I felt that I had spent at least a month with a wonderfully crazy group of fellow sketchers 😊
I’ll share here the first part of my trip – staying in Brest during the festival at the so welcoming house of Irene, one of the enthusiastic volunteers, preparing the expo together, enjoying glancing at each other’s sketchbooks, going out for some more sketching, having meals together and sketching again, and ending our days by late drink&draws, including crazy Posca Portrait Parties 😊

I'll start with some photos from the expo, just to give the feeling of the place:

 Cute local school children asked us to draw them :)

 

 

 And for the ending - portraits of my friends from the Posca Parties :D

The first part was ended, the trip to the Ouessant island was still waiting for us!

Will be continued...

Rainy afternoon at the Fleamarket

Even at a rainy day there are plenty "models" for a hungry sketcher at the Jaffa Fleamarket :)

New Year in Haifa

New Year isn't official holiday in Israel, but different communities practice to celebrate it. As one that born in Russia, I have nostalgic memories about this holiday. My husband was born in Uruguay, were New Year is celebrated as well. So this year we decided to find a place in Israel were we can feel the change of the year's number and went to... Haifa. As a city with a mixed population in which all members of all religions live together, it is a tradition for a long time to celebrate The Holiday of the Holidays at the end of the year, to mark the religious holidays that apply in December and next to it - Hanukkah of the Jews, Christmas of the Christian, the month of the Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr of the Islamic (applicable at various times over the calendar year and may apply in December).
I love Haifa, its hilly landscape and blue sea popping up suddenly from every corner, it's eclectic architecture and its people. You can definitely feel there the New Year atmosphere, at evening all the city is beautifully decorated with lights and you feel a bit abroad. A lot of people go out on the street close to the midnight to celebrate the arriving of the New Year. Just a short trip of around one hundred kilometers from my home succeed to take me pretty far! I wish I sketched more, but for sure it'll be a next time :)

Haifa has the best hummus!

view on German Colony

nice bar in the port

great food and atmosphere!

close to the midnight - people on the street

morning of the New Year at Talpiyot market

Leftovers from the last year

Here is passed another year, busy as usual and full of sketching. I didn't update my blog as frequent as I would like, but I did keep on sketching almost everyday, as always. Sketching still keeps to be my way to experience my everyday life, not only trips to exotic places. Sometimes I feel that there is nothing new in another sketch of couple in the coffee shop or family on the beach. But I can't help myself not doing it, it's a part of me, looking for the small stories and recording them inside my sketchbook. And sharing them with you :)

Here are some sketches from the last two month. I hope I'll upload more this year. And I'm sure I'll keep on sketching. Have a  great year full of visual stories!