Sunday 21 June 2015

Peace and Quiet













A lot to catch up on as I've had a little blog/fb/art break, just enough to recharge my batteries!
Starting from the most recent, yesterday was a sketchcrawl day for the Palermo Urban sketchers.  We went to S.Giovanni degli Eremiti (St. John of the Hermits church), a ruined monastery and church in beautiful peaceful gardens.
My first sketch was from halfway up a bell tower, I quickly sketched while my companions climbed to the top....the rickety spiral staircase was just one step too far for me.  I should have smelt danger when we were given crash hats at the entrance!   Colour added later.



















The view was great across the city looking towards the cathedral.










The cloisters inside the garden were my favorite, slim delicate columns and arches among the trees.


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The church originally from 6th century became a mosque during the Arab domination of Sicily and is in an Islamic architectural style. It was returned to a Christian chuch by the Normans 1130-1148.






 It is built of simple geometric shapes, five cubes (earth) with  domes (the sky) on top.
The red domes are symbol of the city.




Even with tourists milling about it was still a quiet, special place in the middle of a bustling city, well worth a visit!




7 comments:

Melliott said...

Love how you used your extreme "landscape" journal sideways to capture that tower. Nice sketching!

Sue Clinker said...

What a beautiful monastery/church ... and a backdrop of bright blue sky always helps of course! Love your sketches.

Unknown said...

Wow...I absolutely love your sketches - wonderful colour.
Stew.
https://stewcrowther.wordpress.com/

Mari Brown and Colourblob said...

I love how you paint in your journal, how you use the pages to show the grand views. Lovely photos too.
And it looks like you had a very lovely sketch day.

Cathy Holtom said...

It was a lovely sketch day! Thank you for the comments.

Judy said...

Great sketches, Cathy! And what a beautiful place to sketch!

Laura said...

Gorgeous sketches and photos. Worth the climb and hard hats.