Monthly Archives: October 2017
Places where I would like to be – Yosemite and the Canadian Rockies!
Some friends’ recent holiday to the Canadian Rockies and our trip a few years ago to Yosemite have inspired me to try to paint a few mountain scenes.
Using their, and my own photos, from these trips here are just 3 watercolours of those places.
Our trip to Yosemite was amazing, such scale and grandeur is hard to beat. and our friends photos of their Canadian trip reminds me that the West of Canada is still on our “bucket list”
I hope you enjoy this short post , I found producing these paintings a lot of fun, and maybe a visit one day? Lets hope so.
Happy travelling
Brian
El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. Watercolour 14 inches by 10.
Sunset at Lake Moraine in the Canadian Rockies. Watercolour 16 by 12 inches.
Lake Louise in the Canadian Rockies. Watercolour 13 inches by 9.
A weekend in York
Each year we go on a long weekend trip with some very good friends of long standing. Previously we have been to Ypres, Normandy and Amsterdam and in every location we have had really great weekends.
This year our trip was to York, and we all had a really good time in this very interesting City.
It coincided with some Birthday celebrations for me, a rather big number too!, which added to our fun there. (Thanks friends for the card presents and good wishes!)
It was great to celebrate with such good friends, but in amongst the sightseeing, eating , and drinking I have managed to produce 5 sketch book watercolours which I hope you will enjoy.
York is steeped in history and the City centre is dominated by the wonderful York Minster Cathedral. Nearly are little streets, in an area called The Shambles with excellent restaurants and cafes and shops too.
We visited the very good Jorvik centre with it “time traveller ride” back to the Viking settlement in York, and also the York Castle Museum which contains a reproduction of a street and houses and shops of the Victorian era and many other exhibits too.
We enjoyed the food tin York too and went to two very good restaurants which I have no hesitation in recommending. “Rustique” was outstanding as was “Little Italy”. The staff in both restaurants made our party of 8 very welcome indeed.
We stayed at The Grange Hotel and that was very good too.
So here are those small watercolours produced in between visits and meals over the weekend.
If you haven’t been to York then do so as it has so many great things to offer a visitor, many of which we didn’t manage to fit in on this trip, so we have many reasons to return.
If you do know York then I hope these watercolours will be a good reminder of this fascinating City.
York has very intact City Wall that surrounds the City and York Minster Cathedral. This watercolour shows the The Minster from the wall.
This is one of the Gates to the City on High Petergate
York Minster can be seem from many of the little surrounding Streets. This is the view from one of them.
The central Tower of York Minster from The Shambles
York Castle sits on large mound close to the River Stour. Nearby is the York Castle Museum.
I hope you have enjoyed these quick sketches of great weekend in York.
Happy travelling
Brian
