Another Great Idea

A new blog to follow.....

Sketchers from around the world will be sharing their art on postcards.

The project has grown out of the Sketchercise group which was founded by Katherine Tyrrell.
Sketchercise is a group of people who enjoy sketching from life, have already developed the sketching habit, and have found ways of exercising with a sketchbook.

The idea of A Postcard From My Walk is that once a month an artist will mail a sketch done on one of their outings to one of the group of Sketchercise members who are participating in the project. That way they get to see the real sketch rather than just the image on the Internet.

The blog will record a monthly postal exchange of sketches on postcards between the 14 members of Sketchercise over the course of one year.

What a fun idea. Since I love to travel, I look forward to seeing the sketches from around the world.

Here is one of my sketches when I was traveling in Greece.

Kastraki Joanne Osband
watercolor & ink
September 2010

The Island of Antiparos

After spending time in Kastraki and visiting the clifftop monasteries of Meteora I decided to save Delphi for my next visit to Greece and head out to the islands.

I was intrigued by the mention in the Lonely Planet Greek Islands book of the great place to windsurf between the islands of Paros and Antiparos. I thought I had best check this out.

Traveling from Kastraki to Paros was a FULL DAY trip and did not reach the port of Parikia until nearly mid-night. When you get off the ferry people are gathered at the end of the docks with signs for rooms to rent. Running the gauntlet, I picked a woman and we negotiated terms. I was happy to have a place to rest!

The next morning on my way to the bus stop, I stopped at a bakery and bought a "spinach pie" which was still warm.......oh my gosh, was that delicious! Then, I found a gentleman at the dock who was selling fresh fruit; I bought some local grapes. While waiting for my bus, I was approached by a young man about a place to stay in Antiparos......word spreads quickly amongst the locals!

A bus ride and a short ferry between Paros and Antiparos, I left my backpack at this cute little place in Antiparos, and headed to the beach.

After swimming in the crystal clear turquoise blue waters, I pulled out the paints and sketchbook. What I learn was in the hot climate of Greece it is impossible to do a watercolor wash as the paint dries instantly! I painted quickly and then back into the water to cool off. What a life!


And you ask, did I go windsurfing? To be continued......

Kastraki, Greece

Meteora is nearly to the border of Greece and Albania. I took the bus from Athens and stopped at the end of the line which was Kastraki, a very cute little town. The bigger nearby town, Kalambaka, is where most people stay and take the charter bus to see the clifftop monasteries. I, of course, had to be different!

Kastraki won my heart. I stayed in a small family owned place with their own restaurant. Need I say, the food was outstanding?! The day I planned to hike up to the monasteries, it rained so hard this Washingtonian stayed inside to paint.

After having one of mother's fabulous meals, I sat at my table and drew the street scene. It felt like a pen and ink composition was calling......


And then I added the watercolors.

Sketching in Greece

Need I say, Greece is an awesome place to visit!

Not only did I take about a thousand photos, but manage to do some sketching along the journey. Since I traveled with just a backpack, I took a very tiny Windsor & Newton watercolor set, a set of twelve watercolor pencils, one pencil, and one permanent pen marker. My sketch pad is a good quality paper 9" x 6".

It was challenging adjusting to a limited palette and different media as well as the very warm climate of Greece. I learned that doing a watercolor wash was impossible because the water dried so quickly. I found myself drawn to details and did several sketches with pen and ink.

Sometimes I traveled to a lovely spot to paint and other times I sat in a taverna painting after consuming some fabulous Greek food.

In the next several blogs I will be sharing my sketches and experiences.

After a couple days in Athens, I traveled to Meteora to see the clifftop monasteries. Out of a rather flat landscape, you will see unusual shaped mountains with layers of color that seemed to flow down its sides.

I planned to hike up to the monasteries the day after I arrived, but it rained solidly and not even this Washingtonian was willing to go out in the downpour. Instead I spent the day painting. Here is the view from the balcony of my room in Kastraki.


It was raining so hard that several waterfalls formed down the crevasses in the rocks. Can you see them?

I did another version with just the mountains. They are rather organic wouldn't you agree?


Thankfully the rain subsided and I stayed another day to visit the monasteries.