Sketching along the pista #9

I often incorporate small elements of collage into my urban sketching. But I had never made an urban sketch almost entirely of collage. Until Monsaraz, that is. The view from the hotel window looked west across the Alentejo plains, picturesquely divided into small farms, with ranges of hills in the hazy distance. I had come prepared for this moment, with a small portfolio of old coloured paper scraps to which I added some ephemera from this extraordinary hilltop town.

To cut or to tear? That is the question. I mostly chose to tear as better suiting the casual landscape patterning. Some 1860s government blue paper formed hazy sky, touched with a dry stroke of Prussian blue watercolour. A cover leaf from the mid-nineteenth century Archivo Universal: revista hebdomadaria provided distant hills. The cream frontispiece of an old book and ochre paper added just the right colour for the paddocks, while fragments of marbelled book endpapers, brown wrapping paper, and some contemporary ephemera touched on the details.

Alvito, 78° econtro

Desta vez foi um castelo e uma ermida, mas Alvito tem muito mais...

78.º Encontro ÉSk | Alvito

Sketching along the pista #8

I cycled to the hilltop of Monsaraz (OK, in 1st gear with a few stops) so it was great to refresh at the top. Monsaraz in autumn is best between 4 30 in the afternoon (when most tourists drive home to the east) and sunset, when fabulous views to the west over the Alentejo countryside make you glad that Portuguese rule was restored in 1640! (Hello Spain, just joking.)

The restaurants along the main street of Monsaraz have great views east, but after dark the interiors also make great urban sketching subjects. Most Portuguese restaurants have a trove of decorative objects and here wild boar and deer heads, a boar plate by a local artist, and the ever-present TV screens were softened by neatly laid tables and timber panelling. Restaurant sketches are always interrupted by the arrival of food, so I completed the sketch later with a typical paper doily collaged in the bottom right hand corner to balance the composition.

78.º Encontro ÉSk | Alvito

O gótico tardio português, manuelino, mudéjar, é esplendoroso em Alvito.

Valeu bem a pena ir reconhecê-lo mais em pormenor

Sketching along the pista #7

Today’s cycle to Monsaraz was quite an easy one, so I had the luxury of about an hour and a half in the main square of Reguengos de Monsaraz to sketch the church before setting off. Built in 1887–1912 in a ‘Neo-Gothic-Manueline’ style (or so the guidebook said), Igreja Matriz de Santo António was designed by the same architect, António José Dias da Silva, who designed Praça de Touros do Campo Pequeno in Lisboa.

It is always a challenge to get the proportions of a complex building down on paper and more so to invest the resulting sketch with character: otherwise why not just take a photo? This church stands out for its relatively late date, compared to others in Alentejo, and its intricate system of flying buttresses. Next time, I’ll tackle a side view to more clearly express these buttresses but for now the foreshortened view from Praça da Liberdade hints at the overall building form while placing the focus on the main tower.

78º Encontro ESk | Alvito

Sketching along the pista #6

A long gin e tônica is just the thing after a day’s cycling and in Reguengos de Monsaraz they do very long ones indeed. I’m not that keen on sketching food or drinks, but when the situation is relaxed, I do enjoy sketching the scene in bars and bistros.

From my window seat, I had a panoramic view of the bar and small seating area, with the draught beer tap in the foreground and long wall of ‘top shelf’ drinks to my right. This shelf of diverse bottles and uneven profile was perfect for slightly bending the perspective, and the fude nib with expressive grey ink gave a nice loose line.