continuing with the Summer Holidays 2019 sketches ….!
After coming back from our wonderful holidays in Upper Austria, we decided to stay a bit in our home city of Graz before hitting the road again.
Our first stop on this trip was the headquarter of one of Austria’s best ice-cream makers, Eis Greissler in Krumbach (https://www.eis-greissler.at/manufaktur/). The weather that day wasn’t great, it was cold, wet and extremely windy in the Bucklige welt (land of thousand hills). After entering the café our son insisted on having his favourite ice-cream despite the weather being so cold, whilst we treated ourselves with a hot cup of cappuccino and mini bunt cakes, which we didn’t get to eat as they made their way into our son’s grumbling stomach :-)!
After satisfying our taste-buds we explored the premises for a little while. We walked up the hill to observe the beautiful landscape. I couldn’t help but sketch despite it being very windy and cold. The weather condition was making my paper dry too fast, so I had to be really quick with my brush strokes. The fun of travel sketching is facing all sorts of uncertainties!
We next visited Natursinne not very far from eis-greissler. We were curious to know what it was all about, but it was closed due to a private event being underway. I took the opportunity of our brief stop here to sketch this landscape.
After Bucklige welt we headed to Gutenstein, our ‘holiday’ destination. Gutenstein is nestled idyllically between Schneeberg and the Vienna basin, home to Austria’s most wooded district. We spent our night in a small sustainable tiny house located in the middle of nowhere (https://www.wohnwagon.at). The tiny house was called ‘Fanni’ and it was really beautiful. The aged wooden floorboards, indigo dyed & hand block printed curtains (Blaudruck, Burgenland), solar-powered energy, compostable toilet, a kitchen that was equipped with all the basic needs including local organic produce. It was the kind of house that we dream of owning ourselves one day and living a 100% sustainable life! All that surrounded us was nature and a strong stream flowing nearby. Our son’s excitement and joy were hard to contain and ours too :-)!
We settled in Fanni pretty quickly and had a hot cup of chai in our living/dining area. I sipped on the hot chai and sketched the cup of tea and glass jar with wildflowers. Oh ! it was so serene and beautiful sitting by the window looking out to the forest and listening to the sound of the rivulet.
The next morning we enjoyed our coffee in the garden and got ready to leave. We wished we could have stayed forever in Fanni! I had a few minutes before leaving to quickly capture the kitchen with warm sunlight filtering through the glass door. I couldn’t finish my sketch, though I captured the memory of our wonderful time spent as a family!
From Steinapisting we shifted our base to Mariahilfberg also in Gutenstein. There are several trail walks in this region. We didn’t do any serious hike around but we did go into the woods to explore a bit.
The view of Schneeberg, one of the mountains that provides drinking water supply to the city of Vienna, the world’s best drinking water! After sketching with my son we went for lunch in the only operating Gasthaus on Mariahilfberg.
Our son’s sketches of the tiny house. He is a fervent sketcher!
After having lunch I went to sketch the town Church, whilst my husband 
and son decided to have an ice-cream again. I am always very hesitant in sketching architecture and especially baroque. It was a very complicated scene to sketch. I became frustrated and ended up scribbling some marks. Well, that’s what Travel Sketching is anyway, its quick and spontaneous. It is an impression of the people and the place. It’s not all about great art, or skill. Drawing is something everyone can do. I don’t use an eraser or straight edge while I sketching: misplaced lines, side doodles, quirky shapes are all part of it.
Our final destination on this trip was to an organic farmhouse called Adamah Biohof in Glinzendorf near Vienna (https://adamah.at). I took the opportunity of our business visit here to sketch the lovely herb garden on the premises.
This was a very short trip but a memorable one!
I am really glad to have picked up a habit of keeping an illustrated travel journal which not only enhances my trips but also opens my mind. An added bonus is our son gets very intensely involved in sketching along with me. I love his passion for he is truly in the moment, rather than living in some odd parallel world of constant screen time, and he makes for a great sketching partner!
Sketching is, by nature, an old-fashioned way of seeing which a child seems to understand instinctively. To sketch a scene is to truly observe it. Once we return from any trip, my mind remains full of wonder. A quick flip through my journal’s pages and it all comes alive! It’s certainly not the same as capturing a passing moment with the click of a digital camera!
Next up-sketches from South Bürgenland and East Styria.....coming soon!
I couldn’t walk all the way to Taferlklausse because midway through my hike I came across a sign that read ‘wegen wald arbeit gesperrt’ i.e the path is inaccessible due to tree lopping and trespassers will be prosecuted. Yikes! I tried to call my husband but there was no signal on the hilltop. So, I went back to the base and called my husband to pick me up. Our plan of having a picnic together still happened though and I made this sketch from our picnic spot.
The landscape in Steinbach is also very beautiful but its easy to overlook it because the turquoise blue water of Attersee is very captivating. I sketched this on my way to home from Strandbad (public beach).
