Čentur

At the time of the Roman empire there was the main road leading through this little village. Because of a great view at the surroundings a defence point was build here in Roman times.
Last century archeologists found the rests of a huge Roman military settlement here. A 80 kg heavy treasure of 12.000 Roman coins was also found in Čentur. These were made at the time of the self proclaimed Roman emperor Augustus Maxentius (306 – 312 AD).

After a glimpse on the history of the region where I live, I wish for the future to all of you

HAPPY ANNO DOMINI 2010!

Across the Drava river

Maribor is the second largest city in Slovenia. It lies on the river Drava.
After taking your coffee in the legendary coffee house Astoria, a relaxing morning walk through the city's oldest part – Lent, which lies on the bank of river Drava, is just beautiful.
Along the river you'll see the Guinness Book-certified oldest grapevine in the world, called Stara trta (The Old Vine), which is more than 400 years old. You can visit the Old Vine House and the Jewish part of the city with the Synagogue, which today serves as a centre for cultural activities, with events like exhibitions, concerts and literary evenings. Swans and ducks will make you company while you are observing the Defence towers.
Lent is hosting a two-week festival every June, with hundreds of musical, theatrical and other events.

Maribor, Slovenia

I'm noticing that I enjoy sketching more and more. I hope I'll learn a bit on perspective as well... Today a little sketch of our city Maribor. It's a very nice place with friendly people.

Have a wonderful evening.

Čentur village

Čentur is a settlement with just 108 inhabitants on a little hill in the municipality of Koper. There are some abandoned old stone houses and some new ones as well. I had a walk in this lovely place one morning and the village seemed deserted as everybody was gathering olives. The little road was shining in beautiful autumn colors. I hope I'll be able to capture the atmosphere a bit in the painting.

Happy weekend.

Autumn on the coast

A quiet spot just outside the camping place Adria in Ankaran. Especially beautiful in October, when all the different grasses are in bloom.
I've started this painting with nice clean washes and at the end it turned out a picture full of "happy accidents" ;)

Off to watch Mourinho ;) and his football team Inter... See you soon.

Project: Winter in Hartington

I've completed the step-by-step exercise from Peter Woolley's Drawing towards watercolour book and I'm very pleased with the result. While painting it, I've realised that I usually really struggle while wanting the paint to do what I want it to, instead of letting it paint the painting by itself. With this wet-in-wet technique it was really easy to cover the blank paper. I also tried a new approach on how to mix color with water. Instead of putting water to paint, I put paint to clean water and this way managed to control the mix much better.
An enjoyable experience.

Preliminary sketch

A friend of mine indirectly reminded me that I've got quite a few books about watercolors on my shelves, which I love to read. I usually instinctively grab one, depending on my mood and inspiration and read a few pages from it. But I never do step-by-step exercises present in the books. This preliminary sketch is the first step to a beautiful watercolor, demonstrated in Peter Woolley's book »Drawing towards watercolor«, which I'll try to follow.



Keep warm!