Sketching at Kaale Kaffi

Last Sunday's sketchcrawl meeting was thwarted by the rain, so we did the next best thing: we went to Kaale Kaffi.

Kaale Kaffi is a peculiar and very interesting place I first discovered during a sketchcrawl with Leen. It is a mixture between a coffee shop, a second-hand shop and an antiques shop.

From outside it looks like a regular second-hand shop, but when you look closely you discover that you can go in and spend time surrounded by a variety of old objects and clothes.

Most items can be purchased, which is why the inside setup changes on a regular basis.

So the rain pushed us to go in and we ended up spending over 2 hours there with Leen, Carlo and Aniela.

Carlo and Leen busy sketching. Aniela was on my left side

There are so many interesting things that the most difficult part is to choose what to sketch. I think I could fill a whole sketchbook with this place alone.

As an example of the variety of objects you can find there, I was sitting next to a mannequin set up in a running motion, standing by a table with an old candelabra and picture frame (complete with the old sepia picture) on it.

Run, Forest, run!

Next time I will try to make a sketch of the place as a whole. I think it will take me at least 2 hours, but it would definitely be fun.

Despite our small numbers, we were quite productive, as you can see below. Thank you, Leen, for this great picture!

May sketchcrawl

Hello dear sketchers,

This month, let's meet Sunday 3 May at 2 pm in front of the Musée d'Histoire et d'Art and go a bit on the Vauban trail, if the weather permits.

There will be plenty of beautiful views to sketch and tourists to caricature ;)

This Sunday Konscht am Grond takes place as well, so we could also go check that out, too.

Hope to see many of you there!

April sketchcrawl at the Grund

Spring is here and with it the hope that the weather will be nice for our monthly sketchcrawl.

This time, let's take our pencils, brushes and sketchbooks to the Grund.

In case of April showers we can find refuge at the Abbaye Neumünster or at the Naturmusee, and in any case we can finish the afternoon at one of the local pubs.

We are meeting on Sunday, 12th April, at 14.00 on the bridge near the elevator.

Here is the map of where to find it:

click to enlarge

 See you on Sunday! :)

Sketchcrawl in Esch-Belval

For our sketchcrawl in Esch-Belval, we were lucky to have Olga with us as our guide.

I was pleasantly surprised to see about 10 people turn up at our meeting point. Our group is getting bigger and bigger!

Our first stop was around les Hauts Fourneaux, the blast furnace, in Belval. This structure represents Belval's industrial heritage and is now open to the public.

Just a tiny part of the ancient blast furnace

Today, the Belval site is constantly expanding and its regeneration programme's ambition is to turn the ancient industrial site into a large scientific and cultural centre, with new offices, appartments, a busy music venue (Rockhal), a university and many public administrations moving there.

Olga took us to the high school from where we had a great view on the whole site. It is a perfect place to grasp the magnitude of the works being undertaken there.

I am very curious to see how Belval develops in the future.

Cranes everywhere

With LUCA at Villa Vauban

An elegant lady and Jean-Paul Carvalho 

Three weeks ago at Villa Vauban, I had the opportunity to meet the Luxembourg Sketchcrawlers and Jean-Paul Carvalho, architect and member of LUCA.

Sketchcrawl with LUCA at Villa Vauban

I'm a bit late posting my sketches from our outing with LUCA at Villa Vauban last month.

We were blessed with great weather and many people turned up. It was a lot of fun.

This time I felt a bit less daunted about drawing the building. After last time's sketching session with Leen there, I guess I'm starting to know the building a bit better.

Playing with contrasts

It was a great opportunity to meet new sketching enthusiasts, increase our small group of usual sketchers.

Zeta and another sketcher

We finished the afternoon with a nice drink & draw, one of my favourite parts of any sketchcrawl.

@ Weschtesgaart

I think we'll be collaborating more with LUCA in the future, which is a very exciting prospect.

Sketchcrawling at Belval

Sketchbook entry of Michèle Graedel

Great fun with rusty old blast furnaces at the steel plant in Esch-Belval yesterday.. this is by far my new favorite place to sketch!

Sketching with LUCA at Villa Vauban

Last Saturday, we met with LUCa, the Luxembourg Center for Architecture, at Villa Vauban, where they organised a sort of sketchcrawl.

Here are Leen's sketches of the afternoon.

        

       

         

         

Sketchcrawl in Esch-Belval

Hello everyone,

For this month's sketchcrawl, we tought it might be nice to get out of Luxembourg-city.

Luckily we will even have a local to guide us. Thank you in advance, Olga!

We are meeting on Sunday, 8th March, at 14.00 in the pub Urban Belval.

Here is the map of where to find it:

See you on Sunday! :)

Sweating at the Coque

Last Sunday we had went to d'Coque (the shell), the olympic-size swimming pool in Kirchberg.

It is an interesting sketching place if you wish to try your hand at drawing people in motion.

However, be sure to think of wearing lighter clothes, as the temperature is pretty high there and the air is humid.

I admire some people's dedication to swimming regularly. I love swimming and being in the water in general, but it's difficult for me to find the motivation to go out and do it.

There are simply too many people and it's a hassle to have to avoid each other in the water constantly.

Maybe if I had my own pool I would use it all the time? Note to self: must get rich to be able to buy my own swimming pool!

It was so tricky to get some acceptable sketches of the swimmers!

The Coque has several swimming pools: the olympic-sized one, one for diving and 2 shallow ones. I also spotted one where they teach people to swim.

These 3 looked so cute together!

I remember coming to the Coque for sports class in highschool. We were also allowed to try the diving boards at the end of the class, but I never got higher than the second board.

Actually no, I got to the third one once. It was quite a painful experience for I landed on my butt. Never again! Haha

I didn't quite finish this one. Maybe I'll go back sometime.

After sweating at the pool for a bit, we decided to end our outing with a traditional drink-and-draw - my favourite part of every sketchcrawl - and went to the Chocolate House.

That place is always crowded, but we were only three people this time, so it was easier to find a spot.

Their cakes are particularly popular.

Looking forward to the next outing!

Sketching at d'Coque

Last Sunday, we had our sketchcrawl at d'Coque, the olympic-sized swimming pool in Kirchberg and ended the afternoon with a drink-and-draw at the Chocolate House near the grand-ducal palace.

Here are Leen's lovely sketches of the day:

I am happy to say that we were joined by a newcomer, Christine. I hope she will be able to join us again in the future.

First Sketchcrawl of the year

Hello dear sketchers!

How about a sketchcrawl to begin the year in a pleasant way?

Let's meet on Sunday 11th January at 2 pm in front of the post office in Hamilius.

There is no plan as to where we will go, but with the cold I suspect some coffee shop hopping might be in order. We'll see. Any ideas are most welcome :)

See you next week!

UPDATE!

As suggested by Leen, we will go to the Coque in Kirchberg.
Let's meet there directly.
See you on Sunday!

More sketches from the Christmas market

Leen sent me her sketches from the Christmas market. She was quite productive, as you can see.

                            

                                  

                                

Sketches from the Krëschtmaart

I have to admit that I had to push myself to go out and sketch, with the cold and all, but I'm really glad I did. It was fun to be among the Christmas crowd and to experience the Krëschtmaart in a different way.

We (this time only Leen and I) started out at Place d'Armes, where you can find a lot of food stalls, music and even a carousel and blacksmiths.

There were pumpkin carriages, elephants, ducks, bears, even a Mickey Mouse

They were crafting angels out of metal

Before heading out to another one we made a stop at a coffee shop called Kaale Kaffi (litt. cold coffee). Luckily they also had hot beverages and we were able to warm ourselves up.

It was my first time there and I have to say I loved the place. It's full of second-hand clothes and old items that you can buy. One of the waiters told me that the interior decoration was constantly changing.

In short: a sketcher's paradise.

Very elegant mannequins

Apparently this Thierry Mugler piece is very popular

Leen and I finished our tour at the Christmas market on Place de la Constitution, where the Gëlle Fra (litt. golden lady) is.

What I love about this particular market is that every year they dedicate one part of the location to one specific country or region. This year it's Alsace, so you can get tasty tarte flambée (or Flammekueche, as they call it there) and other specialties from that region.

There is also a ferris wheel and even a Santa Claus waiting for people to take photos with him inside a giant bubble. It almost looks like a giant snow globe.

Santa seemed a tiny bit lonely in there

December Sketches from Mersch

Thank you Beliza for leading another Sketchcrawl in the Grand Duchy yesterday! I was not able to join in the city, but made some sketches further up north in Mersch. So happy to finally be sketchcrawling again... I used a pigment liner, a brush pen and some oil pastel sticks from my kids. The oil pastels turned out to be oversized and frustrating for the size of my sketchbooks. At home, I added wax pastels which allow more control with color and line. I am already looking forward to the next Sketchcrawl in January :-)

Michèle Graedel - Sketchcrawl Dec. 2014 in Mersch, Luxembourg

Sketch Crawl at the Krëschtmaart

For this month's sketch crawl we thought it might be nice to go to the Krëschtmaart, or Christmas market.

As an alternative, if the weather is not good, we could go café hopping around the city (Table du pain, Veneziano, etc.).

The meeting is on 7th December at 14.00 in front of the main post office in Hamilius as usual.

So bring your warm gloves and favourite sketchbook and let's get into the Christmas spirit!

There will be plenty of mulled wine to warm us up if needed ;)

Sketches from the 45th WW SketchCrawl

For the 45th worldwide SketchCrawl I met with Zeta, a sketcher who also attended the USK Symposium in Paraty, and with one of my good friends, Tessy.

The weather was wonderful for this time of the year and we were able to sketch outside.

Our first stop was at place Clairfontaine in the centre of Luxembourg-City.

I was in a mood for colour and experimentation, so I mainly used my watercolour pencils and then a normal pencil for some details.

Choosing the colours was tricky, but I quite like this combination

After a short break and hot coffee we decided to continue to Den Huelen Zant (literally the "hollow tooth").

These remains from the past are among my favourite things in Luxembourg-city

It was such fun to be out sketching with the girls in the knowledge that all over the world fellow sketchers and friends were doing the same.

Can't wait to see their sketches of the day.