A bonny afternoon!

I'm always envious when I read about EDMers from various parts of the world meeting up but last week Canada and Switzerland formed a new alliance and joined the growing list!




















Bonny and her husband Rob have been to some amazing places this year but last week they were in Switzerland en route to Italy and fortunately had time to spend a day in Geneva and asked if I had time to see them. Mais oui! And what a fun day we had too! We met up at the Four Seasons Geneva Hotel overlooking the Pont du Mont Blanc. I passed it today and there was a Bugatti Veyron parked outside so I had to take a deep breath before going through those doors! But it was surprisingly welcoming and cosy inside (the doorman didn't throw me out anyway!) and Bonny and Rob greeted me like an old friend. We sipped afternoon tea in beautiful surroundings and I could have stayed there for hours. In fact, someone behind us was sound asleep in his chair so I wasn't the only one!





















A short stroll across the bridge and we paid Branchard a visit. I've posted this photo before and it really doesn't do justice to this lovely street or the beautiful shop. I was in there only a couple of days before so I managed to control myself but Bonny found some lovely things.

From there we took a short tram ride to Jallut which I think is the largest art store in Geneva. It's very good for papers and brushes but this time I discovered Cretacolor Aqua Monolith pencils and Bonny recommended I try the Graphitint pencils too so I came away with slightly more than I'd planned!

One of the things that tempted Bonny were the new Daler Rowney sketching pencils. I bought them last week in a 'Nostalgia' tin decorated with an Arthur Rackham illustration. I couldn't resist the tin and the paper cover! Bonny bought them in a gorgeous cylindrical pencil case.



















I think that's a good excuse for a photo so here they are on the right, the tin and the cover. I've included the Cretacolor and Graphitint pencils - here on textured grey paper bought in Branchard. I bought Drawing Animals by Victor Ambrus (one of my favourite artists) recently and his technique interests me so I want to give the textured paper and soft smudgy, hard pencil combination a go. The book with the black cover is in line to be a tram sketchbook (I've only just started a new one!) and the book with the blue cover is a present from Bonny. My favourite format, square, and beautifully textured I can't wait to try it. I love that paper covering it too, I think I'll try and keep it on. She also gave me an American Artist Drawing magazine - I think it's just brilliant that drawing is still regarded as important enough to warrant a magazine dedicated to it, so that was quite inspiring.


From there we went back to the city centre and chatted some more over an extremely chocolatey hot chocolate in the tearoom at the Martel Chocolatier. Time flew by but I had a super time and hopefully they did too as we hope to meet up again next year! Thanks Bonny and Rob for a really lovely afternoon!