Learning to Look 1 - Croatia July 2010

Drawings from the first of a series of trips taken over the summer of 2010, collectively known as Learning to Look.

1 - Croatia

Trogia 26.7.10  - Watercolour

A town of Renaissance palaces and gin palaces.  Behind the waterfront lies the town square with a cathedral rich in stone carvings - a fascinating mixture of medieval and renaissance.

Trogia, Olive pressing stone?

Split 27.7.10 - Fountain pen

A vast an seemingly ugly city until you get to the centre.  Diocletian’s Palace is now a complex overlay of Roman and Medieval - like Barcelona - tiny streets with roman masonary appearing at the back of shops or in doorways. At the centre of the palace a brick 'pantheon' with dome and oculus almost entirely to ourselves. Difficult to draw!

Makarska 28.7.10 - Watercolour 

Makarska Tree - Fountain pen 5 minutes

Makarska Map 28.7.10 

At the heart of this holiday town is an old fishing village in a sheltered bay with the Biokovo mountain range as a backdrop. Impossibly narrow streets and a fine sloping square at the centre.

 

Makarska Square 30.7.10 - Pencil 20 minutes

Troglodite Fortified Dwellings - Makarska 29.7.10

Botanical Gardens poised on the scree slopes above Makarska with ancient buildings under the the overhanging cliffs

Hotel Lav Makarska 1.8.10 - Watercolour

Cloister of the Franjevacki Monastery - Fountain pen 10 minutes 

Vivosac Skradinski Buk  2.8.10

S. Donata Zadar - 2.8.10 - Pencil 30 minutes, difficult! 

Zadar - A two level circular early romanesque church built on the pavement of the roman forum out of whatever stones came to hand.  No longer a consecrated church but now a concert space  with a  beautiful white interior.

 

 

Zagreb - Sketch from a quiet street corner restaurant (Fountain pen, 5 minutes). On my left is a stuccoed doric arched gateway, could be Nash in Regents Park. This street, a little away from the conspicuously refurbished tourist spots is typical of the old city delapidated but very much lived in.