Monday 17 August 2009

I made it to the sea!

... I've been very silent here for the past two months... all the while sitting in sunny, hot and very lovely Berlin and all the water features I got to see were the occasional heavy thundery downpours. But they usually caught me by surprise and so weren't captured on (wet) paper.

But finally: in week six while in Germany I've made it to the sea - the Baltic Sea - and if you have been following my visit on my own blog, it wasn't just any old place on the Baltic Sea but CALIFORNIA. Well - not strictly true - it's Kalifornien, the German spelling, complete with a camping site called CALIFORNIA.

While my friend Ate was busy filming her final project for her art school degree (on the confusions between Kalifornien and California) I did spend a bit of time sketching among the assisting with sound, interviewing, generally keeping our camping van clean and proper and a lot of swimming in the sea.

This is what the Baltic Sea Kalifornien looks like:



And here some of my sketches at night, and one morning just as the seafog was going to lift.

Kalifornien Strand Nocturne
Kalifornien Nocturne No 1,
35x25cm, soft pastel on board

Kalifornien Strand
After the fog,
35x25cm, soft pastel on board

5 comments:

Patricia said...

My grandparents were Lithuanians...I have always wanted to see the Baltic Sea. Thank you for sharing.

Sarah said...

Love the pictures, and those mad seat things, what a great place. Beautiful nocturns too, I am working on a few right now as well.

Making A Mark said...

Great colours and great light - were you using filters at all?

Gesa said...

Hi Patricia - I've never made it to the 'proper' Baltic Sea... I think the shoreline further East is much more spectacular.

Ah... 'mad seat things' are called beach baskets... Strandkörbe. Ate and I wondered if they were specific to Germany... and maybe Netherlands... but didn't know.

Thanks, too, Katherine. No... there's no filters involved. It's not even an SLR but my lovely Fuji Finepix, where I can manually do a few things. There's a little bit of control for light involved but that's it.

The light was quite spectacular - in particular on the humid days. A funny combination: seabreeze while awaiting a thunderstorm

vivien said...

a lovely set of images - especially those nocturnes and I like the sketches