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.

Happy months

It is a long ago I last updated my blog. Even not updating, I still create, draw, paint or make a photo each day.Only this posting.... :-( Let´s say I take a blog holiday.
But these months was so exciting that some of the events must be mentioned.

For example gigantic monstrousus concert of the rock legend, music band GENESIS. This group started 40 years ago and now, after 15 still years, they are on stage again. Present new world tour „Turn It On Again“ are going through twelve European countries (starts from Helsinki to Rome) and I think from September people from USA and Canada can enjoy their music.
The concert in Prague was performed on Sazka ARENA 20th June 2007. Tony Banks, Phil Collins , Mike Rutherford, Chester Thompson and Daryl Steurmer was perfect on gigantic stage in front of 25 000 people standing here . The drawings I did are drawings as seen from two megascreens , I was standing maybe 70 meters far from stage.The colors are finished later at home.








During these two months I became happy winner !!! Normally I have no luck but this is so special I named it "East meets West" right here , in Bratislava. On the photo you can see two small parcels, one from free Moleskinerie giveaway (contains lovely ruled notebook Moleskine ), second one right from fabulous printmaker David Bull (contains small print "Fuji from Edo Castle" ). Both of these sites are definitelly worth of seeing and bookmarking !!



And holiday, of course. This year in Alanya,Turkey again. I made small travel sketchbook , for this moment I will publish only two pages , the rest next time.

Theatrical masks from Myra

In this post I return to Myra, ancient town of Lycia (now in Turkey). As you know from previous post, the facade of the Roman amphitheatre in Myra was richly decorated with theatrical masks and mythological scenes.Now it is in ruins and everywhere around are lying stones with faces, most of them not damaged, very artistic and nice.

Back from the Land of Half-Moon

The last two summer weeks we usually spent in Turkey, on so called Turkish Riviera on the coast of Mediterranean Sea .This year in Kemer , which was formerly small town, now seaside resort .One of the major attractions of Kemer is it´s natural beauty.
The clean sea, forests and the Taurus mountains combine here in harmony.But more, the area around is full of ancient cities and archeologicals points of interests. So, you can imagine, there was no time for boring on my holiday.


As a very favourite part of my holiday is a tasting of turkish cuisine. I must admit, there is no meal you could not give thumbs up . Gözleme is a savory Turkish pastry made by rolling dough with a thin roller and repeatedly folding it. It is filled, and browned in a pan.

Next pictures are from sunken city of Kekova, an ancient town, which was destroyed by an earthquake during the second century A.D. You can see see parts of houses through glass bottoms of boats . Very impressive !

Next town I visited, Myra, was one of the six most important cities of ancient Lycia and eventually was made the capital of the Roman province of Lycia. As a result of Arab raids, earthquakes, and the flooding of the Myrros stream, the city became largely abandoned.The ruins of Myra consist of an impressive necropolis and adjacent well preserved Roman theatre and are located at about 1.5 km north of present day Kale - Demre. The Roman theatre is large with 35 consecutive rows of seats. The facade of the amphitheatre was richly decorated with theatrical masks and mythological scenes. To the west of the theatre the steep cliff is honeycombed with closely packed tombs, most of them of the Lycian house-type.
In early Christian times, Myra was the metropolis of Lycia. The town is traditionally associated with Saint Paul, who changed ships in its harbor. Saint Nicholas of Myra was a bishop of Myra in the 4th century, he had a reputation for secret gift-giving, but is now commonly known as Santa Claus. The earliest church of St. Nicholas at Myra was built in the 6th century.

In 1863 Czar Alexander II of Russia bought the building and started to have it restored, but the work was never finished. In 1963 the eastern and southern sides of the church was excavated, in 1968 the former burial of St. Nicholas was roofed over. The floor of the church is made of opus sectile, a mosaic of coloured marble, and there are some remains of wall-paintings. A Greek marble sarcophagus had been reused to bury the Saint, but his bones were stolen in 1087 by merchants from Bari, and now held in the cathedral of that city.

Karpuzkaldiran Waterfall , is approx. 40 meters high and the water gushes down onto the massive rocks with great force.This waterfall is located in Antalya, near Lara.Don´t worry, there was still plenty of time for sea and sun, and for some drawings, too. Despite of bomb attacks in near Antalya and annoying Russian tourists in hotel, it was fun-tastic time again.

A sneží a sneží ...

Celý deň sa sype z oblohy sneh.Ja viem, je február a je to normálne...Lenže prečo to nie je normálne aj pre tých,čo sa starajú o cesty ? Lebo jazdiť dnes po Bratislave,to teda nebol žiaden sviatok . Mám dojem,nech je zima akákoľvek,vždy to tých zodpovedných prekvapí ! Na Slovensku dnes hlásili desiatky havárií, Bratislava je zablokovaná kamiónmi. Úžasné ! V noci má začať mrznúť...


A preto je tu na porovnanie obrázok z našej poslednej dovolenky v Turecku v auguste minulého roku. Je to pláž v mestečku Gazipasa,jedna z našich obľúbených.

As a contrast to snowing presence a sketch from vacation last year.It was lovely beach in town Gazipasa, Turkey , painted by pen and watercolor in my sketchbook.