CHINESE TERRACOTA SOLDIERS, watercolor and ink

CHINESE TERRACOTA SOLDIERS, ink and watercolor in my travel journal.
We were very lucky to be in Prague at the moment of the special exhibition of the Chinese Terracota Soldiers. The exhibition is amazing, huge, very well presented, you need several hours to really get a feeling for the magnificent presentation of this unique work of art 2,200 years old!!! These sculptures were found in Xian, China, at the end of the XXth C. They found over 8,000 sculptures of soldiers, no two faces are alike! They have a variety of clothing, of buttons on their clothes, of hair style, that reflects the high level of work the Chinese artists were doing over two thousand years ago!!! We have not learned anything!

DANCING HOUSE, PRAGUE, watercolor and ink

DANCING HOUSE, PRAGUE, watercolor and ink in my travel journal. Frank Ghery designed these two interconnected buildings, seeming to "dance" with each other. Together, they are called "Dancing House", one is all glass, in a manner representing the moving dress of a woman, the other one straight, with a "head" of wires on top of the building. The image is beautiful. The restaurant on top, floor 7, is "Ginger and Fred", very appropriately. Delicious food, excellent presentation and service! The view of Prague from the top is fantastic!

VIEW FROM MY WINDOW, PRAGUE, watercolor and ink in my sketchbook

VIEW FROM MY WINDOW, PRAGUE, watercolor and ink in my sketchbook
About a week ago, when the moon was full, and the night sky clear, this was the view from my first story room in Prague. I couldn't help it, I had to paint it, even if it was a quick sketch. It was such a  beautiful night! This is downtown Prague, where tramways pass by often, going in all directions. Prague has a fantastic public transportation system; efficient, fast, clean, and inexpensive.

PRAHA ROOFTOPS, watercolor and ink in my sketchbook

PRAHA ROOFTOPS, watercolor and ink in my sketchbook.

It's practically impossible to draw all the details of each rooftop. They are so beautifully decorated, this city of Prague, in the Czech Republic, is a paradise of details and decorated buildings. Some of buildings are several centuries old, so I understand Mucha's inspiration for the posters that made him famous in Paris.

Antiquarium Museum, Sevilla, watercolor and ink

Antiquarium Museum, Sevilla, Spain, watercolor of ancient tiles in my art-notebook.

A few years ago, they started excavating in downtown Sevilla to build a much needed underground parking, and found: treasure!!! Ancient ruins from the Phoenicians and Romans dating back more than 2000 years! Among them, beautiful tile floors of ancient homes, workshops, etc. They built a very modern, interactive museum with their findings instead of the proposed parking space.

This is the most comprehensive collection of archaeological treasures from this city. I strongly recommend visiting it. It is underneath "Las Setas", a modern structure in the shape of mushrooms, in front of Plaza de la Encarnacion, downtown Sevilla.

Picasso's Birthplace, Malaga, Spain, watercolor and ink

 Picasso's birthplace, in front of Plaza de la Merced, in Malaga. I happened to visit it last Sunday, October 25th, exactly on his birthday!!!
I painted this quick sketch viewed from the corner across.

He would have been 133 years old.
To celebrate his birthday, they had prepared thousands of birds "palomas", his favorite bird, and hang them from the entrance door, plus all over the square, and different balconies around the square.
Here is the picture of the same corner, with the colorful paper "palomas":

Volcan Poas, Costa Rica

VOLCAN POAS, Parque Nacional, Costa Rica.  Watercolor and ink in my art-notebook.

This is one of seven active volcanoes in Costa Rica, a country with hundreds of volcanoes! Poas has an average water temperature of 40 degrees Centigrades (a little over a hundred Farenheit), a depth of 300 meters (over 900 feet) and a diameter of 1320 meters (over 4,000 feet). When you visit volcan Poas, you can see the crater and the lake inside if you are lucky. It is often covered by clouds. When I went last month, I couldn't see it at first, covered by clouds, my friends and I took a one hour walk around Laguna Botos nearby, and when we returned...the clouds opened up! It was beautiful! Being able to see it after after our walk felt like an award for our patience and effort.

SAXNÄS CHURCH II, watercolor and ink

Saxnäs Church II, watercolor and ink, 4x6 on Hungarian hand-made paper

The church in Saxnäs, Lapland, in Northern Sweden, is small, surrounded by a lovely park, with the stones of town people buried here all around the church. A few benches to sit down, meditate, or paint a small watercolor like this one.

I recently read: THOSE WHO SAVE US, by Jenna Blum.  This book examines the emotional and moral gray area between heroism and collaboration during WWII. At the core of the novel are the themes of love, sacrifice, and family secrets which cause a mis-communication between Anna and her daughter Trudy. Excellent! I enjoyed it very much and recommend it, even though...I know...it's another book on a subject that has been covered so much.

Tuesdays at Rudas Bath, watercolor

Tuesdays at Rudas Bath, Budapest, watercolor and ink, 14x18cm. available.
From Everything is Illuminated, by Jonathan Safran Foer: " Art is that thing having to do only with itself --the product of a successful attempt to make a work of art. Unfortunately, there are no examples of art, nor good reasons to think that it will ever exist. (Everything that has been made has been made with a purpose: I want to sell this, or I want this to make me famous and loved, or I want this to make me whole, or worse, I want this to make others whole.) And yet, we continue to write, paint, sculpt, and compose. Is this foolish of us?"

Turkish Tuesdays, watercolor and ink

Turkish Tuesdays, Budapest, watercolor and ink, 14x18cm. available.
I recently finished reading: Everything is Illuminated, by Jonathan Safran Foer. He's a master of words, and meaning. One example: "They renovated their house for the wedding, installing a porcelain toilet in the outhouse..." How often do we do foolish things in this venue, without seeing the forest for the tree? A beautiful phrase I'm still delighting in..."Tomorrow was over the horizon and would take an entire day to reach."