EDM #174: Draw a bridge - Nový Most ( Bratislava, Slovakia)

Nový most ( New Bridge , formerly Most SNP ) is a modern structure crossing Danube River (Donau, Dunaj ) in Bratislava, Slovakia. It was built in early ´70s (exact 1967-1972) and is 7th largest suspension (cable-stayed) bridge in the world.

Whole bridge hangs on steel ropes (in 3 points) from a single 85m high pylon, which is in fact an A-shaped steel column on top of which is restaurant and café UFO watch.taste.groove accesible from street level by an fast elevator for 10 people in one beam of the pylon (or by an emergency stairwell of 430 stairs in the other beam ). From top of roof is amazing panoramic view over the city, the river Danube and surroundings 100 km far away. LOOK AT IT HERE !


The bridge is 431,8m long, 21m wide and has two decks (upper is for car traffic, the lower 3,5m wide for pedestrian and cyclists). The entire steel structure weighs 8000 tons in total. It was done by architect J.Lacko and engineer A.Tesár and was declared the structure of the century for Slovakia. It is 27th and most lower building in World Federation of Great Towers but the only one being pylon of the bridge...

19th World Wide Sketchcrawl Bratislava, Slovakia

Yesterday was the 19th International Sketchcrawl . Wheather was fine, quite hot (there was 31 degrees of Celsius at 18:00 evening! ) , but perfect for all day walk around Bratislava . I start several kilometers long walk by Donau river (unfortunately the times when it was called "blue" are definitely gone ). You can see New Bridge , which steel constuction,hanging on steel cables, is 432 m long...I think it will be soon part of EDMS drawing here (174 Draw a bridge) in this blog.
Through bank of river you come to town..to the Slovak National Museum with Memorial Of Czechoslovak Statehood with bronze lion on 14,85 m tall column. Lion holds shield with state emblem of (former) Czechoslovak state.
The next street from Slovak Muzeum you can find bronze Duck Fountain made 1914 by the sculptor Kuhmayer. It is nice fountain with interesting story...soon here in this blog :-)
Going to the Old Town is the opportunity watch ( and sketch) people resting, walking, listen to street performancers ,..
The sketches are done in plain paper notebook ( Donau river in aquarell Moleskine) with Lamy fountain pen and VanGogh watercolors )

Illustration Friday - Tales and Legends 2 - Man In Black

On the building of Old Town Hall complex, right next to a Gothic bay window, you can see a picture of the man in black who is mentioned in one of the oldest stories - about a widow and a false oath.

Every Wednesday , people used to come to the town hall court with their complaints to seek justice. Once a widow stated that her husband´s field had been robbed by one of the municipal lords who was sitting in the room. He replied that the woman is mad and pulled out a document with a seal which confirmed that the field was his. "The document can´t be right! " screamed the desperate widow. "Let the Municipal Lord swear that he is telling the truth ! " He did so, and added, " If it is a false oath, let me be punished justly." Then the whole house shook and became smoky, from the smoke appeared a devil, he threw the liar over his shoulder, and before he disappeared with his booty touched the Town Hall wall with his black hand, and left for ever pressed into it picture of the lying Municipal Lord. Or his own , who knows it exactly today?
And here it is Devil/man in black , done in watercolor and Lamy ink pen on WN CotmanNOT/cold pressed 300 gsm watercolor paper

Illustration Friday - Tales and Legends 1 - Joker Posmievačik

There is only a few cities in the world which has so many tales and legends still living among people, like Bratislava. Many of these found their artistic realisation in fountains, pictures or statues.
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In the niche of Neoclassical house (on Panská street 29) is a small mid-nineteenth century statue of a crouching boy laughing malevolently to which has stuck the nickname Posmievačik (Joker)
The Joker is linked with a story about a beautiful girl living in Pressburg (former name of Bratislava) who could not decide between two admirers. As a result of her quandary, she said that she would marry the suitor who could build a house more rapidly. (Clever girl , isn´t true ?) Both masters started to build houses on sites standing opposite each other. The winner got the bride. In a niche on the front of his house the Joker sat to mock his neighbour for his loss. However,some city inhabitants say that the statue is only boy who wanted to see a coronation procession, so much, that he peered over from his potty where he was sitting. Others say that the boy is looking at flood waters to see if they have started to fall. Finallu, according to some, he is showing sailors the way to the previous location of the red-light district - the Vydrica.
Who knows it today ? It´s a tales and legends all about.

The Joker is done with watercolors (Yarka White Nights) and Lamy pen at WN Water Colour 300 gsm Cotman NOT/cold pressed paper

BIB 2007

Each two years in early autumn time I am looking forward to most prestigious contest in the children's illustrations' world which is held here, in Bratislava, Slovakia. The title of this contest is “Biennial of Illustrations Bratislava”, with the official abbreviation “BIB” and the particular year added.
The Biennial of Illustration Bratislava (BIB) is an international juried exhibition of originals of illustrations made for children's and juvenile books. The BIB International Jury awards the following prestigious awards: GRAND PRIX BIB, BIB GOLDEN APPLES, BIB PLAQUES, and a HONORARY MENTION TO A PUBLISHING HOUSE. An award of the Biennial's highest award gives an artist the right and opportunity to mount an individual exhibition of his/her own book-illustration works at the next year of the BIB. During particular BIB years, winners of H. C. Andersen Award and NOMA CONCOURS Award (the UNESCO Asian Center in Tokyo, Japan) holders have a separate group exhibition in Bratislava. And it is feast for eyes not only for children.

The winner of the Grand Prix in this year´s BIB 2007 is Einar Turkowski from Germany :

You can find the works of the other winners here.

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Ticket to exhibition looks like this - with illustration of Slovak artist Jana Kiselová-Siteková :

The Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Republic, Slovak Commission for UNESCO, and BIBIANA, International House of Art for Children are the principal organizers of the contest.
The participation of artists in the BIB is provided for through and administered by national IBBY (International Board on Books for Young People) Sections in individual countries. Only in the event that no national IBBY Section works in the country where an artist lives/works, those interested may file their applications with publishing houses, artists’ associations etc. and ask for their cooperation. As well, independent individual applications may be submitted in such cases, too.
The next BIB 2009 this GrandPrix will be yours , maybe .

Schoener Náci

You already know there are several goofy statues here in Bratislava , each of them has their unique story. Not far (maybe 40 steps) from Čumil you can pass by the another statue . It is well known Schoener Naci (here is the photo with my daughter).The Schoener Naci was a man who lived in Bratislava in the early 20th century, when Bratislava was called Pressburg. He was a poor, polite and always smartly dressed ( in worn out tail-coat, polished shoes , a top hat and noble white glows ) man who wandered around the Old Town during the day.They said to have become mad as a result of an unhappy love and therefore he daily for almost four decades walked the city with stick in one hand and a donated packet from some coffee and cake room in the other hand (It was rather effective advertisement!) He was ready to help everyone who asked and he was gallant to women he met on his route..."Kiss your hands" was his greatings to nice woman ! His real name was Ignac Lamar. "Naci" is the nickname for Ignac and "Schoene(r)" is the German word for "handsome".
It is not coincidence I mention it , because his remnants coming back after 40 years to Bratislava on last Sunday, where there was several hundreds people saying good bye to him !

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The statue itself is work of sculptor Juraj Meliš and was several times badly damaged by English "stag" parties. Drawings is done with Lamy pen and watercolor pencils

Coronation ceremony

Bratislava became a coronation city of Hungarian kings in times when Hungary lost its Coronation status due war with Turks. Old Bratislava became a meeting point of kingdoms, seats of kings and archbishops. In the St. Martin Cathedral in the years 1563 – 1830 10 kings, one ruling queen, and eight kings’ wives were crowned. The only ruling queen crowned was Maria Teresa from house of Habsburgs, she was crowned on the 25^th September 1563. The last coronation which took place in the city was on the September 1830 and it was Ferdinand V.

Nowadays traditions of coronations in Bratislava comes to life every year in the first weekend of September. Celebration processions through the streets but also night tournaments, puppet theatre shows, belly dancers and fire eaters offer an opportunity for fun in the streets of the old town. It is one of the biggest cultural events in Slovakia and helps to understand the historical coronation ceremony of Hungarian kings. According to historical documents in the Cathedral of St. Martin the ceremony of coronation itself is displayed written, during which the king is baptized and receives a coronation insignias: St Stephens Crown, sword, robe an apple and the staff. Then in the streets of the town the next parts of the ceremony take place: the knights of the golden spurs are knighted, an oath is given to the country, and the king rides up the coronation hill where he blesses all major compass points. In the framework of the coronation ceremony the representative of other king towns come to greet the king, workshops present their crafts, instead of water there is wine in the fountain, knights tournaments take place and a folk banquet takes place where there is offered roasted bull.

Today started 5th Coronation Ceremony of the Hungarian Queen Anna Tirol, wife of King Matthew II., crowned on the 25th of March 1613 in Bratislava. Despite of bad wheather it was spectacular performance. Ceremony was for the first time on main square , for the first time in Latin language and it last more than 1 hour !

King´s route from St.Martin Cathedral through the old town is marked .

Drawings done in daily sketchbook with Lamy pen and portable WN Cotman watercolor

Two castles

I am taking wonderful watercolor class (of wonderful Cathy Johnson , why not you ? ) and for this ocassion here is coming time for better watercolors for me. On eBay I was succesful bidder for Winsor Newton watercolor Sketcher´s Pocket Box ( inside with 12 halfpanes of Cotman WC and neat retractable brush). It is so small I can take it really everywhere with me. So this sketch I made in my daily sketchbook from city beach on bank of river Dunaj. It was really quick and with this small pocket you are not a center of view for people all around.Of course, first I need to know these colors, but I am very satisfied with it.
Bratislava´s castle is done in Lamy pen and WN watercolors in my (no branding) sketchbook Here is another castle, this is castle hill in Alanya (Turkey) taken from Cleopatra beach, sketch from last holiday . Besides some scanner troubles ( no blue sea or sky) you can see that for example green is quite different from WinsonNewton . This sketch was done in Koh-I-Noor watercolor and Lamy pen.

Queen in Bratislava

	Queen Beatrix, the first Dutch monarch to visit present-day Slovakia, arrived in Bratislava on Monday when starts a three-day state visit of our country. She met briefly on Monday with President of Slovakia Mr.Gašparovič and with Prime minister. But, as you see (on official photos SITA press agency) she cannot miss another important person - Čumil :-)

You can met Her Majesty Queen Beatrix on streets of Old City of Bratislava in Tuesday. I think the biggest joy was between japanese tourists - it seems like competition of who make the best and most photoshoots per second :-) . By the way , she is absolutely cute old lady in hat, with broad smile on her face. I think a lot of time if I could post this picture from my daily sketchbook. OK, my apologies to peoples of Netherland , but here it is . You donˇt meet Queen everyday, don´t you ?
Done with ink-liner 0.3 Kooh-I-Nor and watercolor.

Čumil

Done in small moleskine with Faber-Castel watercolor pencils and waterbrush.

There are several goofy statues here in Bratislava , each of them has their unique story. On the corner of streets Rybárska brána , Panská and Laurinská streets you can see man sticking his head out of a manhole. Meet Čumil . Author of this bronze statue is Viktor Hulík and here is from 26th Jul 1997 . From this time is one of the most photographed "citizen " of Bratislava because Bratislavians and tourists love him. Children love to abuse him by sitting on his head, adults love make photo with him or simply touch him for luck.

Great discussion have taken place as to what actually the man is up to..was he a sewer worker during the Second World War and had hid below ground to escape the bombs. With the war over, he’d climbed back out, thus explaining the satisfied grin on his face ? Or that Čumil was a guerrilla leader fighting against the Soviets ?

NO !

A close look at the statue reveals that instead of a helmet, a cap with a strap covers the head. It means Čumil is a normal boy observing beautiful girls (maybe up their skirts , who knows ) passing by, as Bratislava is also famous for an unusually high rate of beautiful girls per square kilometre.

Btw. Čumil is word from noun "čumieť" in Slovak language , in English it means man who is gazing, man who stare at something .

14th World Wide Sketchcrawl / Noc muzei a galerii

Today was a 14th Sketchcrawl Day and Night of Museums and Galeries , when you have all day free admit entry to all museums and galeries up to midnight. There was a plenty of exhibition, so no mater how, you can´t visit every thing. But I am sure now I will visit more frequently because there is plenty of ideas for drawings ( look for example excellent blog of Elizabeth Perry ) and there will be less people than today .
So, some exhibitions about nature of Slovakia...
...some about history of Slovakia......some about art (actually about baroque art in the Middle Europe ) ...
..some sketchbooks too :-) And evening Artsy Saturday - visit a new muzical , in this case
"The Three Musketeers "