ultraMARIN Sketch

Last week I had a chance to be at a concert of the Jerusalem Young Philharmonic giving an exciting performance. I have already forgotten what a tremendous experience it is to live classical music, especially performed by cute and talented teens, and especially Dmitry Shostakovich, whose music ended the show. I must to go more! And if I'm talking about the experience of sketching live music - here are some more sketches from the last months I did at two concerts of musicians I love. Never will be tired of sketching music!

It was so fun to sketch again in the real world, especially in the company of friends-sketchers! Almost three months, when we all changed our routine, each one in its way, but we all couldn't go out and meet - so this sketchcrawl was something we all were thirsty about very much! I used my lock-down days to drawing a lot inside my home and also to many virtual drink&draws with my friends, but there is nothing like a real thing! These are two sketches I manged to make in between of a lot of chatting :) Meir Park is on of my favorite places in Tel Aviv, sometimes it feels too pretty and seems like it's impossible to beat its beauty in drawing :) Here we are, keeping the some distance and wearing masks :) hope we'll meet soon again!

I always have doubts when I’m packing my sketching bag for a trip, and so it was while preparing for the short family trip to Tuscany. From my experience, there are not many opportunities for sketching on family trips. Other family members don’t like “wasting” time, time is too short, places are too beautiful, and each one wants to see something a bit different. Finally, I decided to bring small 10-paged soft-cover sketchbook with nice paper, and it fit perfectly! So here they are, some memories I succeeded in “stealing” during the trip. Most days I had some free time at the beautiful Tuscany Villa we stayed at. There are also some “eating time” sketches – another opportunity for sketchers not to "waste" time during trips. And there are some places I forced my family to wait for me – a few iconic spots in Florence and Sienna where I couldn’t not sketch. This was my second visit to Tuscany, and I had some magical memories from the Piazza del Campo in Sienna. My ...

Last post about my Portugal trip dedicated to my love - Lisbon! Since the first Urban Sketchers Symposium I attended was in Lisbon, streets of Lisbon will always be connected for me to the sketches I did and sketchers I met there for the first time. Discovering this wonderful community 7 years ago for the first time in real, not online, was amazing revelation! I visited this beautiful city a few years later, when I was invited by the local branch of USk to give a workshop, so I had another opportunity to know the city better, and to add more sketchers to my Lisbon collection. So now it was like visiting an old friend - exiting, nostalgic, full of emotions. This time I came there with my husband, who came to Lisbon for the first time, so I was kind of a guide for him :) We strolled the streets a lot, and sometimes I just wanted to be there, without sketching. Some places that looked to me too iconic were the most difficult for me for sketching, as for example, the Belem  distric...

I could stay and sketch in beautiful Porto forever, but as every trip, ours had limited time, and in our plans was to end Lisbon, to which I had special sentiments. Here are sketches done during our way from Porto to Lisbon - we did several stops. These are from colorful and very authentic Coimbra - city with very old University and breathtaking panoramas: These from Medieval town Obiedos - very special place, still keeping his antique look: And one - I couldn't resist - from the local Portuguese beach: Wait for the last Portuguese post - from Porto!

So, the Symposium was over, and after the last evening with a lot of hugs, kisses and good-buys, I woke up at the next morning, finally having time to explore the city on my own. Many of urban sketchers were still staying in the city, so I had a calming feeling that the party is not over. We went with my friend Rachel to a sketching walk. Are you familiar with this phenomenon? All the busy days during the symposium, I was "eating" with my eyes beautiful views of Porto, thinking to myself: "If I just had half an hour!" Now, when I had a free day, suddenly I couldn't find a spot to sketch at... Anyway, here is the first "after-symposium" sketch, done after we crossed the river from Jardim do Morro:  One more while meeting some friends-sketchers for the dinner: And more sketches staying in Porto few more days, after my husband Marcos arrived to accompany me at the rest of the Portugal trip: