In or out of the game?

Our February sketchcrawl at the Coque (National Table Tennis Championship) was, in all its feverish movement, a moment of reflexion. It struck me how impossible it is to be in and out of the game at the same time.

Sketching means taking a distance to observe and catch the movement of the players, the colours, the public, the hall. Sketching means to go over to another place in the hall because the point of view of the tennis table is more interesting or the spotlight falls better on the players. Sketching means being frustrated because just at the moment you 'catch' a player the game is over, or the players switch sides...

Following the game however means feeling the tension building up, applauding a well placed shot, shouting as a supporter, making comments on the umpire, having a favourite player...

We spent the whole afternoon sketching in the Coque, observing and sketching the game and the players but I must confess that I'm at a loss for words when asked who finally won the championship!

Leen

PS: But here it is: http://www.lequotidien.lu/sports/tennis-de-table-championnats-nationaux-luxembourg-tous-les-resultats/

Coque le 7 février 2016

Quel vent ce dimanche! Personne n'avait envie de dessiner dehors. Nous nous sommes retrouvés dans le hall d'entrée du Centre national sportif et culturel "d'Coque"  au plateau de Kirchberg. Cet ensemble a été construit en deux temps par l'architecte français, prix de Rome, Roger Taillibert. Tout d'abord le centre aquatique en béton puis de nombreuses années plus tard les halles de sport en structure bois.
Nous avons choisi démocratiquement d'aller dessiner dans la halle qui accueillait les championnats nationaux individuels seniors de tennis de table. Je n'étais pas particulièrement intéressée par ce sport et je voulais dessiner la structure de la halle. Je me suis d'abord concentrée sur un des terrains.

Mais en voyant les concurrents bouger, la rapidité, la précision de jeu, l'architecture, que j'ai d'habitude tendance à dessiner, commençait à disparaître pour laisser la place à la "chasse au mouvement". Dessiner le plus vite possible pour saisir le geste, la posture…la balle perd de son importance, vivre le mouvement, la position dans le coup de crayon en commençant par les matchs

                               

des garçons…

                                                   
puis ceux des filles.

Ensuite nous nous sommes retrouvés pour une pause lors de laquelle Denis nous a offert à boire pour fêter son anniversaire et nous avons échangé nous impressions et partagés nos dessins.

La buvette offre depuis la galerie une vue plongeante sur les terrains et les joueurs. Les spectateurs toujours plus nombreux y boivent à la santé des vainqueurs, regardent les derniers matchs et peut-être prolongent encore un peu la fin de semaine avant de braver le mauvais temps.

Une belle après-midi pour les sportifs du crayon!

Mudam 10 janvier 2016

Parcourir l'exposition "Eppur si muove" dans les entrailles tamisées du musée d'art moderne Grand-Duc Jean, de Ieoh Ming Pei. Derrière "The Frictionless Sled" de Chris Burden, va et vient d'une pièce de plastic orange, ponctué de soupirs, coulissant sur un rail quasi immatériel, s'ouvre une fenêtre sur la place de l'Europe. Deux absurdités en concurrence: l'accumulation de bâtiments qui ne parvient pas à animer le vide d'une place ou la sobriété exacerbée d'un mouvement inutile.

Puis au détour d'un mur abstrait apparaît, gigantesque la "Fatamorgana, Méta-Harmonie IV" de Jean Tinguely qui au rythme du bon vouloir des visiteurs, écrase l'ambiance feutrée et muséale par sa soudaine mise en marche tonitruante.

Le regard s'évade vers le haut dans l'intervalle où l'exubérance du mouvement grinçant rencontre la maîtrise policée d'une structure architecturale se voulant filigrane.

J'ai malheureusement dû quitter le musée un peu trop tôt pour partager avec les autres urban sketchers ces moments quasi méditatifs. Ce sera pour une autre fois!

PS: Juste pour information, la superbe Vespa dessinée par Béliza est l'œuvre de Damian Ortega "Miracolo Italiano" de 2005.

February sketchcrawl

Hello dear sketchers,

For the month of February, we are going to the Coque in Kircherg. We will be able to sketch sportspeople in action, at the swimming pool or during table tennis matches that will take place that day.

Let's meet at the main entrance of the Coque at 14.00 on Sunday 7 February 2016.

See you on Sunday!

And yet it moves

Eppur si muove is the title of the exhibition held at the Mudam when we went there for our monthly sketchcrawl.

The exhibition focuses on the links between the fields of the visual arts and technology, as well as the influence that the history of the sciences and technology has exercised on contemporary arts.

It was the ideal place to take refuge on a chilly Sunday afternoon.

I was immediately attracted to an installation with a vespa, showing its different parts and how they fit together. Like an autopsy of sorts. There was something kind of poetic in the way all the parts were hanging from the ceiling.

Unfortunately I forgot to check what the name of this piece was, but here is my attempt at capturing it.

Imagine all the pieces floating in the room

One of the stars of the exhibition seemed to be Jean Tinguely's installation called Fatamorgana Méta-Harmonie IV. A button on the floor activated the machine, which then started making various noises.

Each part had a different colour, though

It was a very popular attraction, with many people waiting to see what the machine would do next.

I was surprised at the number of visitors in the museum, to be honest. Excellent occasion to quickly capture people on paper.

A guided tour was taking place. Unfortunately I was too far to hear what was being said

eppur si muove

For the january sketchcrawl we met at the Luxemburg modern art museum (MUDAM). The ongoing exhibition was 'EPPUR SI MUOVE'. Galileo Galilei's famous words reflect well the spirit of this exhibition, which highlights the importance of the relationship between discoveries, innovations and creativity.
Wow, I was overwhelmed by the challenge of sketching  all the machinery and the technical aspects, and - lazy sketcher that I am - I decided to concentrate on colours and atmosphere rather than the actual elements, components, wheels, threads, etc.

My fellow sketchers were much more diligent, as one can see in this photo with a wonderful, colourful but very complicated installation of Jean Tinguely (Fatamorgana, Méta-Harmonie IV)



Sketching during a rehearsal session of my brother's cover band

My brother Matt asked me to come and sketch the members of the band during a rehearsal session.
Interesting and difficult at the time... Alex, the guitar player, and Matt, on the drums, are moving all the time. Jacques, at the bass, and Jérôme, the singer, are more static than on stage. I prefer the slow pieces and breaks to do my job!
Arnaud

 

 

January Sketchcrawl

Hello dear sketchers,

First of all: Happy new Year 2016, full of joy, happiness and lots of sketches!

For the first sketchcrawl of the year, let's meet at the entrance of the Mudam (Kirchberg) at 14:00 this Sunday 10 January 2016.

See you on Sunday!

Le marché de Noel le 6 décembre 2015

Le principe du marché de Noel est de noyer le flâneur dans une foule de tentations, entre les parfums d'épices, de vin chaud et de gromperekichelcher, les chants de Noel et les couleurs vives des étals, je me suis faufilée au coeur de la foule pour saisir un peu de ce brouhaha…évidemment le dessin s'en ressent et on ne perçoit vraiment plus rien de la place d'Armes.

 

Le marché de Noel place d'Armes

Forgeron au travail en face du Cercle Cité

Puis nous nous sommes retrouvés au Kaale Kaffi pour boire un merveilleux thé au gingembre en continuant nos esquisses

Jacqueline et Leen en train de dessiner

Messing around with oil pastels at the december sketchcrawl

I am not a big fan of Christmas markets, but for sketchers there are quite some challenges! For the last sketchcrawl of the year I prepared my oil pastels and some coloured paper to capture the colourful scenes.

 I am still learning to work with the pastels, and my first sketch came out too stiff, but I like the detail of the balloons and the little kid.

Then I tried to sketch the blacksmiths who were demonstrating their work on the market (also because it was comfortingly warm near their little oven...). One of the smiths wanted to buy my sketch. When I gave it to him for free he offered me one of his creations. Before giving him my sketch I quickly made this unsharp picture in the rain that had started to fall all of a sudden. One can see the tiny drops of water on the paper...

After an hour or so our sketcher´s group landed at our favorite place, Kaale Kaffi, where we enjoyed the beautiful decoration,  the delicate ginger and lemon tea, the cappuccino, the nice service, the sketching and last but not least, the warm company.

Leen

People gazing at the Christmas market

For the last sketchcrawl of the year, we decided to aim for the Christmas market in the capital.

This time around we were quite the crowd, with 10 people spreading around the place to sketch the little houses, the people, the surrounding buildings.

I started with the best intentions of capturing a scene of the whole market or at least a portion of it, but somehow only managed to focus on a funny little statue on top of one of the stalls.

The drunk Santa was just irresistible.

Luckily, the weather was quite mild for the season and there was a big crowd, which allowed me to sketch my favourite subject: people.

People being people, though, I did not have many cooperative models and had to be as fast as possible, so I ended up mainly with a collection of hastily jotted squiggles.

 

It's ok, though, for a collection of squiggles always looks better than one squiggle alone :D

After a while it started feeling cold, so we headed to one of our favourite cafés, the Kaale Kaffi.

Everyone was pretty much at the Christmas market, so we were able to sit the whole group at the big table.

Nothing like sipping on a ginger lemon tea while drawing with sketching buddies to finish a lovely afternoon.

IN & OUT the Rotondes...

I completely agree with Beliza about the feeling and the identity of that particular place of Luxembourg. It will be nice to come back here when the courtyard will be crowded of people during the many Spring and Summer activities ...

La Buvette
black ink at chinese brush and white Posca on craft paper

Rotonde 2, courtyard and foodtruck
black ink at chinese brush and white Posca on craft paper