Sketching in Choulex

Choulex is a short drive away and my favourite place to walk at the moment. It has a little nature reserve so even in the winter there are at least some water birds and birds of prey to look for. We were out walking there this week when Mark took a day off and we managed to pick the best day of the week for the weather. It's been very dull and misty so the colours are all very muted but Wednesday gave us a little glimpse of sunshine. I don't like sketching trees usually but I love their bare branches and shapes in the wnter.

 Around Geneva, when the leaves come off, you can see how very many trees have mistletoe growing on them. On some, there's so much mistletoe it looks as if the trees are still green! I loved how the mistletoe looked like Christmas baubles on this one.

As well as the wildlife, I love walking in Choulex for the magnificent panoramas. It's surrounded by mountains and it's absolutely amazing on clear sunny days. I haven't drawn those yet but I did draw the church in the middle distance with the bare vineyards in front of it.

An action shot! I've joined an international postcard exchange with the wonderful artists on the Sketchercise group, organised by Katherine Tyrrell of Making a Mark and Ronell van Wyk of African Tapestry. So I needed a photo of me sketching for an intro on the new group blog, Postcards from my Walk. I want to do more outdoor sketching this year so the postcard exchange has come about at the perfect time. No excuses now!

HB and B pencil in a little Green & Stone 'Travel Sketch Book'.