More Travel Journal Sketches from Brittany

Mari Le Glatin Keis led us on daily sketch walks. She encouraged us to pack light & simple, relax, play with color, stay small, collage and sketch with words. I tend to fill the whole page with an image so working small was a challenge for me. Here's the view from my farm house bedroom window.

We spent a whole day at the Château La Roche Jagu. Bus loads of school children filled the botanical gardens and castle. They sat on the lawn and drew the castle. I drew mine and filled the whole page in their style. I used pastels to prepare these pages for sketching. The colors are rich and vibrant.
The castle construction workers left their marks after each job completed. At the end of the day, their marks were counted to determine their compensation. Artichoke fields cover the landscape in this area of Brittany.
Inside the château, we viewed an exhibit- Passions Botaniques. I loved the medieval drawings that combined human forms as part of the plant.
The botanical gardens that covered the castle grounds inspired many sketches.
Our last day, we took a sketch walk at high tide along the Jaudy River Estuary. The contour drawing is of the village Plougrescant in the distance.
The above sketch inspired this watercolor- the light shone on the roof tops against a dark sky.